


Sabotaged

by KurlyFrasier



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Action & Romance, Angst, Cute, F/M, Fighting, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Funny, Humor, Mystery, Past Abuse, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25413934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KurlyFrasier/pseuds/KurlyFrasier
Summary: Four broken boys. All under one roof. All living their best lives. Two new girls in town, each running from their own nightmares. Two others who prefer to distract themselves from their sad reality. Then there's Splint.
Relationships: Donatello (TMNT) & Original Female Character(s), Donatello/Original Female Character(s), Leonardo (TMNT) & Original Female Character(s), Leonardo (TMNT)/Original Female Character(s), Michelangelo (TMNT) & Original Female Character(s), Michelangelo (TMNT)/Original Female Character(s), Raphael (TMNT) & Original Female Character(s), Raphael (TMNT)/Original Female Character(s)





	1. Dictionary/Translation of Words & Phrases

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:  
> -This is co-authored, we call ourselves Tylar Malarkey  
> -The boys are human in this story  
> -There is some violence, but I don't think it's all that graphic, even though I used that as one of the warnings.  
> -There is some past abuse mentioned later.  
> -This chapter is literally a dictionary/translation of words and phrases due to a few characters that are not originally from the U.S.  
> -Anything that sounds familiar to the real world or somebody else's work, is completely coincidental. Except for the TMNT related stuff (THAT WE DO NOT OWN), of course.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dictionary/Translations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Those who ARE Australian-or those who know the Australian dialect-, feel free to comment the proper word/definition/pronunciation. THANKS!

Pronunciation: (Or what we've gathered, anyway)

Speak like you have a lazy tongue

R sounds like AH

Ex. Car = Cah. Bar = Bah.

2 separate words. 1st word ends with a vowel. 2nd word starts with vowel. Insert R at the beginning of 2nd word. (Or if 1st word technically ends in R but pronounced AH)

Ex. Fiona is coming. = Fiona Ris coming

Car is moving = cah ris moving.

Don't pronounce D or T / OO sounds like EW

Ex. Good = gew

-unless negative attitude.

\--Ex. Don't = don'T

Below are some words people who are NOT Australian might need to know the definition of.

In order of appearance: (We think. No promises, people)

Bodgy: poor quality

Stubbies: I thought this meant shorts but it could be the size of a beer...I'm using it for shorts until someone tells me otherwise lol

Bum: butt

Nuddy: naked

Birdie: girl

Furphy: rumor

Suss: short for suspicious, I think

Good Oil: useful information

Bloke: man

Get stuffed: shut up?

Wanker: idiot?

Wobbly: excitable behavior. (I may have used this wrong)

Knackered: tired/worn out

Deadset: absolutely/truth

Gangas: From my understanding, this is their word for slut bimbo...I think.

Clobber: clothes

Runners: shoes, could be more specific aka tennis/running shoes

Tosser: idiot?

Rack Off: Leave

Cracka: early morning

Breakkie: breakfast

Flicked: when a person leaves or left someone behind (maybe?)

Ripper: great

Mate: friend

Dunny: restroom

Howzit Goin': what's up/hi

Lollies: candy

Have a Go: Try it

Don't Get Your Knickers in a Knot: Don't get upset/calm down

She'll be Right: it'll be alright

That's Beaut/Beauty/Bewt: good job

Holy-Dooly: expression of surprise

It's a Goer: something will occur/basically a promise?

Dinkum: good/true/genuine

Trolly Dolly: flight attendant

TAIWANESE/CHINESE/KOREAN/WHATEVER LANGUAGE THIS IS

Those who ARE Taiwanese-or those who know mandarin-, feel free to comment the proper word/definition/pronunciation. THANKS!

Duìbùqǐ (doo-boo-chi): sorry

Bà (bah): dad/father

Māmā: mom/mother

Xiǎoxīn wǒ de xiǎo míngxīng: careful my little star

Shǎguā, wǒ shuō pǔtōnghuà: fool i speak mandarin too

Bái yí: idiot

Xièxiè

*Note: Words will continue to be added as the story goes.


	2. The Message

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: You have survived the info page! I salute you!
> 
> PLEASE ENJOY
> 
> Also...this is sort of a prologue...

_This will teach them,_ he thought as he pressed the send button.

**_Location compromised. Proceed to secondary safe house._ **

The replies were quick in coming. First the Russells then the Turners, then Williams, and lastly the Cheungs responded with an affirmative. Unbeknownst to them, they had just signed their own death warrants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I promise the REAL chapter 1 is next! :D


	3. ONE: Raphael

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: YAY to the REAL CHAPTER ONE!!! WOOT WOOT!!!
> 
> OHMYGOSH I AM SO EXCITED

Red hoodie jacket? Check. Duffel? Check. Keys? Check.

The room was quiet. Surprisingly so. That only left one out of two conclusions. Either A) Splinter had left or, B) he was eating. Either way, it was time for me to leave. 

“Casey,” I heard Angie, my adoptive mum, scold from the other side of the wall. “I’m not stupid. I know you and Raph go somewhere indecent, in the least. I’ve seen him return in not-so-nice conditions.” It seems I was wrong - Splinter was caught attempting to leave.

“Ma, we are gonna be fine,” Splinter soothed. 

“Fine? He has come back from wherever you guys go without being able to go to school for days!” I rolled my eyes. That happened once in the two years I’ve been going to The Underground.

“Ma-”

“Don’t ‘ma’ me, Casey. Don’t you dare think for one second,” I could imagine her pointing a finger at him, “that I don’t hear the excited hollers from you two when you come home from-from that place!”

“Please,” he begged. “It’s not like he loses much anyway,” he muttered.

“Doesn’t lose much? Are you telling me he gets into fights on purpose?” she asked, her voice calm. Too calm. I’ve heard that voice one too many times. It was time for me to bolt, before I was caught eavesdropping, which wouldn’t be terribly difficult considering I was basically the size of a bulldozer, probably just as loud too. 

I let Splinter deal with his mum. We always let him deal with his mum. 

**~~~~~~~~~~~**

The Underground was  bodgy. It wasn’t pretty. And it didn’t smell good. It was also illegal. Not that I cared. I wasn’t there to smell the roses and I had yet to do nice things there. In fact, I was there to blow off steam. To hit something, or more accurately; someone. I was there to win. I had a reputation to uphold. No need to let that go to waste by losing now, right? 

Tonight, Underground wasn’t being used as the club it normally was. Instead of the usual bright flashing lights and loud obnoxious music by the dance floor - it was dark, aside from a few flickering lights on the far side of the building where the MMA octagon was.

Each step echoed as I walked through the old warehouse. The few people who were scattered about stopped their conversations to stare as I headed to my destination; the makeshift locker room. I ignored them, never sure if they watched because I might explode at any moment or if they were in awe of my abilities to knock someone out in one hit or keep the fight going for a while. There was a possible third option but, I prefer not to think people stare due to my size.

Once in the locker room, I swiftly tossed my duffel to the side, not caring where it landed exactly, everyone knew better than to touch my things anyway. I slipped off my hoodie jacket and tee, kept the same  stubbies on, and started stretching as I waited for Splinter to arrive so he could wrap my hands up and rub vaseline on my face before the fight.

About ten minutes later I could hear greetings being shouted throughout the building. Splinter had arrived.

“Ready!” Splinter clapped loudly once when he slammed the door open. I nodded with a grunt. “All clear, Ceci!” he shouted behind him, letting Ceci know I wasn’t  bum nuddy .

“Okay, Raph,” a tall, short-haired blonde  birdie chirped, practically skipping into the locker room, clipboard and phone in hand, per usual. She may be 18, but this girl was more organized than a filing cabinet and always knew what was up. “Your opponent tonight calls himself ‘Spider’. He’s about three inches shorter, fifteen pounds heavier, and his reach is one inch longer than yours. Granted, he’s not nearly as chiseled. He also seems to have come from nowhere a couple months ago. Some guy who calls himself ‘Tank’ took him under his wing and Spider has been practically undefeatable since. Losing only one outta his last ten fights. Before that, the rumormill, or furphy as you like to call it, says he threw himself into brawls that always ended him in the hospital.”

“Tank? Never heard of the guy,” Splinter piped in. “You?” he directed to me as he finished wrapping my hands then started rubbing the vaseline.

“Nah,” I sighed, Tank seemed like a  suss.

“Anyway,” Ceci continued as she paced across the room, her heels clicked with every step. That was the only thing that ever bothered me about her. She was always moving. I got used to it though. Plus, it was nice to have someone who gave me the  good oil  on my opponents. I had no idea where she ever got the information, but I was a happy  bloke to have her on my side, that was for sure. Granted, she could be a bit too bubbly at times for my taste. “Splinter and I went down to Dover last week to watch him fight. His opponent tripped him and twisted his right ankle. Oh, he’s right handed by the way. So, if we’re lucky, he’s probably gonna favor that ankle tonight. I’m sure it’s still bothering him so it will at least slow him down,” she ended with a bright smile, a click of her pen, and out the door to change into her, what Splinter called, ‘sexy fight night attire’.

“So,” I started. “What do the statistics say about tonight?” I asked when the door closed behind Ceci, already knowing his answer.

From my understanding, Splinter and Ceci got together once a week or so to go over the skill levels of other fighters in the area to determine how difficult it would be for me to win. Once fight night came along they worked the crowd together to get them to bet on which one of us was most likely to win. Obviously, Splinter bet on me most of the time, but Ceci can really make the other guy sound invincible to get people betting on him. In the end, I usually won and Splinter would get a bigger payout with it.

“In your favor,” he answered, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Of course.”

“I reckon you just say that to make me feel better,” I retorted with a smirk.

“Whatever gets you to win,” he chuckled. “Okay Raph, all done!” Splinter jumped back, hands up in surrender, knowing I was gonna punch his arm for that last comment. I had to hand it to him, he was quick. Not that I would ever tell him that. 

“ Get stuffed, wankah ,” I shouted, smiling, as he ran out with me following close behind.

I stopped short on the other side of the locker room door as Splinter weaved his way close to the tall birdie. I took one last deep, calming breath as a good portion of the crowd chanted Spider’s name. This was the one moment I felt at peace - right before my name was called. The only moment I didn’t feel like punching a wall, or anything else, for that matter. The one time all the noise, stress, and memories seemed to fade away. The moment my name was called, my peaceful moment would end, my eyes would snap open and the noise would crank up even louder than before.

“Nightmare!” Ceci shouted into the microphone from the octagon, now sporting her ‘sexy fight night attire’ which consisted of showing lots of leg, midriff, and cleavage. The very things every bloke in there dreamed of touching. And I was the one who had to make sure she wasn’t touched.

“Night-mare! Night-mare! Night-mare!” the crowd chanted excitedly while I jogged up to the octagon door. There was no showing off for me at the moment.. I wanted to blow off some steam by beating the guy, and leave. 

“Spider!” Ceci called without waiting for the noise to die down. “You ready?” 

He nodded, anxiously bouncing on his toes.

“Nightmare!” She pointed to me. “You ready?”

I nodded, never taking my eyes off Spider as she left the mat.

Ceci was right, like always, my opponent was favoring his right ankle and he did look a bit soft. Goodie for me.

“Begin!” Ceci exclaimed.

I didn’t move. I never made the first move. I needed to see how my opponent moved, how he protected himself, and how confident he was. Within the first three seconds I noticed Spider was sloppy. The hand meant to protect his face was down by his collarbone. And he was scared. He didn’t come straight at me. Instead he jumped from side-to-side as he came forward.

I did not have the patience for this  bloke.

I took one step forward. He took two steps back. 

The crowd was shouting for some action.

I gave it to them.

Fed up with Spider’s antics, I took a few quick steps forward and jabbed him right in the eye. That shiner will go well with his ankle in the morning. That made him  wobbly . Which caused me to smirk. Now not only was he angry, he wasn’t thinking straight either. That made this fight easy.

Spider ran for me, arms at his sides, as I lifted my leg up in a roundhouse kick to his face.  The crowd went silent as he limply fell to his side. 

The fight was over. 

I turned on my heel with a smirk, stepped out of the octagon, and headed towards the locker room, high-fiving a few people on my way.

Before Splinter was even done with checking to see if Spider was able to move, I was in the locker room grabbing my things.

Red hoodie jacket? Check. Duffel? Check. Keys? Check.

**~~~~~~~~~~**

To say I was  knackered the next day would be a lie. Which was surprising, considering I shared a room with a banshee. To say I was annoyed the next day would be  deadset . 

My morning workout routine went good enough. My morning classes were just as boring as the day before. Lunch, unfortunately, involved  gangas 1, 2, and 3. The gangas were three of the school’s cheerleaders and from the furphy I’ve heard, they’re not people anybody would want on their bad side. No offense to ganga 3. Last year, to my surprise, I learned first-hand that she was actually sane and could have a real conversation; we had to write an essay together for English.

“Hey, Raph,” ganga 1 greeted as she pulled a chair out to sit. Gangas 2 and 3 followed suit.

“You look nice today, Raph,” ganga 2 said with a smile. Ganga 1 glared daggers at her across the table but quickly shook it off, probably hoping I didn’t notice, and replaced it with her usual tight smile.

“Thanks,” I replied, a bit confused, unsure why I suddenly looked nice today. I was wearing the same  clobber I wore every day: stubbies, tee,  runners , and my red hoodie jacket. The table was quiet, considering three of the worst gossips of the school were sitting at my table. Every few minutes ganga 1 would move her hand closer to mine. Every time she did I would pull my hand further away. By now, her arm was practically stretched across the table. I would’ve chuckled if I wasn’t completely repulsed by her. 

On my other side, ganga 2 kept trying to play footsie with me. Which was a bit hard to avoid since I couldn’t exactly see through the table to know when she would move her foot toward mine. Eventually my leg was completely stretched out under the table. Unfortunately, it gave her access to rub her pedicured feet up and down my leg. I cringed with every touch.

Throughout all of this, ganga 3 - the only one I could stand - was trying hard to suppress her giggling. She knew I was uncomfortable and she was getting a kick out of it. I gave her a small smile which caused her giggling suppressions to explode with fervor. She wasn’t one of those girls with a cute laugh, nor was she a girl who could easily stop once she started either. 

The food she had just forked into her mouth was spewed out all over the table, including on top of our food. 

“Charlotte!” Gangas 1 and 2 screeched with their faces cringed in disgust. I immediately saw my chance to leave without them noticing and took it. Thank you, ganga 3.

I walked away from the high pitched voices and oinking laughter only to be stopped by some geek from Human A&P class on my way to the rubbish bin.

“S-s-so Raphael,” he stuttered, his eyes wandered everywhere except me. “I w-w-was wonder-ering if may-maybe you would like - if maybe you would like a, uuhh, a m-m-man-manager?”

“It’s Raph,” I told him, wondering a) how he knew I fought and b) whether I would get suspended for dumping my Charlotte infested tray of food on his head. I decided I probably would and continued to stare at him. He noticeably gulped.

“I c-could be y-y-your m-manager,” he offered weakly.

“Nah,” I answered as I headed to the rubbish bin, again.

Raph!” I heard a bloke say on my left. I inwardly groaned. Too many people seemed to think I wanted to talk to them today. I kept walking. He followed. “I heard you knocked out Spider last night!” the bloke fist pumped the air. I ignored him, not caring to talk about that tosser . 

“Hey!” he continued, “You need a manager?” he asked hopefully.

“Nah,” I replied, finally dumping my infested food into the rubbish, leaving the tray on top of the bin. 

“Why not?” he asked

“Yeah, dude,” some other bloke started. “Why not? I was gonna ask if I could be your manager. I saw you fight last night. You were great!” He smiled.

“I don’t need one, that’s why,” I told them impatiently. I was about to get angry.

“Oh! I know,” a third bloke piped. “You work alone, don’t you?”

“No,” I growled out with clenched teeth. Their eyes widened in disbelief. I took that as my leave, thinking the conversation was finally over. Thinking I could breathe again.

I was wrong.

“No?” They simultaneously asked when I was about a table away.. 

I took a calming breath before I turned around and strode back to them . My long legs carried me quicker than even I expected as they all leaned back with me now standing toe to toe in front of them.

“That’s what I said, wasn’t it?” I affirmed, slowly annunciating each word.

“Well,” a quiet voice said from behind me. I swiftly turned to face him. The three I now had behind me sighed in relief. The geek from earlier was back, eyes wide with surprise from my sudden movement. 

I waited for him to continue, my stance low and my nose flared as I tried to keep calm. He cleared his throat before continuing.

“Then wh-who is y-y-y-your man-manager?”

“My brother,” I replied through clenched teeth.

“Which one?” Another asked behind me.

“Splinter.” I stated, straightening back up to my full six foot six inch height. 

“Splinter?” One of the others asked quizzically.

“Splinter!” I shouted angrily, loud enough to cause the whole cafeteria to go silent for a second. Moments later he was beside me.

“Yeah? What’s up, man?” He asked, unperturbed by my rage. He was used to it.

“This one, Splinty here,” I wrapped an arm around his shoulders, “is my little brothah and he is my managah. If you have any problems with it then you’ll have to deal with me, Donnie, Leo, and Mikey. Got it?”

They all nodded frantically, too afraid to speak.

“Gewd.” I nodded once. “Now  rack off! Leave me alone!” I shouted, loud enough to gain everyone’s attention, then stormed off to my next class. Not caring about the muttering audience.

The second half of my school day continued exactly how I liked it. Nobody bothered me and it was boring, as usual.

**~~~~~~~~~~~**

“Boys!” Angie called down the stairs that evening. “Pizza’s here!”

“Yeah!” Mikey exclaimed, as he tossed the game controller and jumped over the couch, almost stumbling, to run up the stairs. Moments later Leo, Donnie, Splinter, and I ran up behind him, completely starved. Playing video games can really cause a bloke to get hungry. Especially for pizza.

“Thanks mom,” Donnie said, always the one with manners, as the rest of us started grabbing all five pizza boxes to take back downstairs with us.

“Wait just a moment boys,” Angie stopped us midway back to the stairway that led to the basement.

“Yes?” We all simultaneously said, turning around to face her.

“You know what tomorrow is, right?” She asked, raising a brow, already knowing what our reply was gonna be.

“Yes,” we all sadly stated. 

“It’s all of your parents’, and Mikey’s brother’s, anniversary,” we nodded silently. “I expect you all to pay your respects.”

“Yes ma’am,” we said.

“So you’re all skipping school and we are going to their graves,” she paused for a moment. “Eight a.m. is when we leave, so don’t stay up too late eating pizza and playing games.”

“Yes! No school for me!” Splinter shouted excitedly.

“Except you, Casey,” Angie pointed at him. “You are still going to school. Your father and I are alive and well, thank you.”

“Awe man,” he muttered, slowly retreating back down the stairs.

“You got it, Mama Angie,” Mikey promised adding a thumbs up as he stuffed his mouth with pizza.

“And can’t you wait ‘til you’re down the stairs before you start eating, Mikey?” she asked in a teasing tone. “You could trip down the stairs like that.” Mikey shook his head in reply since his mouth was too full to say anything and we headed back down the stairs to what we like to call, ‘The Game Room.’ The large, finished basement consisted of a stocked bar, billiards table, a few different game consoles with about a hundred games to play on the massive TV, workout equipment, and door to the pool. Not to mention the garage to make a quick getaway, if needed.

“And you’re welcome boys!” she shouted down at us after a few minutes.

“Thanks mum!” I shouted back, knowing she could easily hear me, I set my pizza down on the coffee table as I sat back on the couch.

The guys and I ate in silence. All thinking the same thing while we munched on our respective pizzas. 

Tomorrow was gonna be a long day.

~~~~~~~~~~

I was right. Tomorrow was a long day. My  cracka started out the usual way:

Wake up.

Three mile run outside.

Workout.

Shower.

It was as if the day was like every other ordinary school day. There was even the usual odd smells coming from Donnie’s room as he was experimenting - as long as there wasn’t a loud boom and it didn’t smell like smoke again, I could care less what happened in there. I’ve learned the hard way not to eat anything that seemed even remotely appetizing from his room. Nobody knows what food poisoning is until they eat some cooked up experiment Donnie made.

By the time I walked out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel, Splinter and Leo were both out in the hall. Splinter yawned as I brushed past him in the hall while Leo quickly zipped down the hall, causing Splinter to stumble when he passed him, and closed the bathroom door behind himself with a smirk. I could hear the click of the door as he locked it closed. 

Splinter, who was still recovering from his earlier stumble looked up with a confused face until he realized what had happened.

“No!” he screamed, running the last few steps to the bathroom door as if that would somehow magically make time rewind. 

“Leo!” Splinter shouted as his fists were banging on the door. “I’m gonna be late for school! Open up!”

“He locked it, Splinty,” I called over my shoulder. “You know wha’ tha’ means,” I chuckled as I took the next few steps into our room, Splinter’s groan was just as loud as his banshee snores.

“Then you should’ve thought of waking up earlier!” Leo’s muffled voice shouted back, unable to resist teasing Splinter. 

“You know I always wake up at 7 o’clock sharp! I need the time to perfectly-”

“Perfectly set my curls!” Leo and I mimicked, in a girly tone, at the exact same moment. 

“We know!” I continued with my normal voice.

“Well, if you guys _ know _ ,” emphasis on ‘know’. “Then why do you all  _ constantly _ plant a stink bomb in the bathroom  _ every _ morning at the  _ exact _ time I need it!”

“Maybe,” I countered, now heading back down the hall, fully clothed and ready for breakfast. “If you weren’ such a _ girl _ , we wouldn’ feel the nee’ to  _ man _ you up a li’l.”

“Man me up!?” He squeaked. 

“Yeah.” I deadpanned, walking down the stairs.

“I’m just as much of a man as you,” he retorted.

“Oh, yeah?” I chuckled as Splinter’s lanky frame followed behind me. “Let’s have mum  se’le rit  then, shall we?”

“That’s a great idea.”

“Hey mum,” I called from the bottom of the stairs.

“Yeah, sweetheart?” Angie replied, not even looking back at us as she continued to cook  breakkie .

“Splinty has a question for you,” I said, folding my arms with a knowing grin.

“Okay,” she turned around, now giving us her full attention. “Shoot.”

“Raph says the guys plant a stink bomb every morning in the bathroom to man me up, but I’m already just as manly as they are,” he confidently stated. “Don’t you agree, ma?”

“Oh, honey. You’re a little high maintenance,” she cooed, walking around the island in the middle of the large, open foyer that served as a living room immediately off the stairs, a dining room off to the side, and the kitchen in the back of the area. I tried to hold back my chuckle when she continued. “And you’ll always be my little boy. I doubt I will ever be able to see you as a man,” she said, giving his cheek a light pat before she resumed her cooking. That left a shocked, open-mouthed, speechless, gangly boy at the bottom of the stairs.

“Ma!” He exasperated. 

“Oh, and Casey,” Angie called over her shoulder. “There’s a full guest bathroom down here. Why don’t you just use that in the morning?”

“Because my stuff is in our bathroom upstairs,” he mumbled, heading back up the stairs as Donnie sauntered down. “That’s why.” Donnie and I snickered, high-fiving on his way to the kitchen.

“Morning mom,” he smiled when she gave us an exasperated look.

Now that my fun with Splinter was over for the morning, I checked up on the word game I’ve been playing with Mikey the past few days. He had yet to take his turn. Instead of putting my phone back in my pocket I decided I would play the game with a random stranger. I chose one of the top ranking players,  _ Addybug _ , in hopes of playing with someone that will actually take their turn before the day was over. 

To my surprise, the response was immediate. 

Unfortunately, before I could see what word they used I heard the click of the stove going off. I smiled at the glorious sound of food being done, just now noticing Donnie was the one who finished cooking. I quickly called to everyone from the bottom of the stairs then sprinted back to the kitchen island to fill a plate full of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Around here, breakkie was a ritual.

**~~~~~~~~~~**

Going to the cemetery was never a loud affair, unlike everything else that involves Mikey. In fact, it was the only time Mikey wasn’t heard cracking a joke. Once there, we all went our separate ways, Angie always found a bench to sit and read a book, but at the same time, close enough to give immediate comfort to any of us, if needed. The rest of us went off to visit our respective parents. 

I sat down with a sigh to lean against my parents’ headstone, absentmindedly picking at the grass next to me.

I don’t remember much the day they died, but I do remember the anger afterwards. That rage is what began to fuel me. It was the reason I woke up. It was the reason I fought. I came to terms with the fact that I would never find true happiness again. 

Before their death, I was happy.  _ We _ were happy. I still remember my parents were always smiling. Even when I was dreading moving to Missouri a couple of years before the accident to take care of my grandparents. I remember them telling me it won’t be  _ that _ bad and that it wasn’t the end of the world. 

They were right. It really wasn’t all bad living in America. Not every creature was out to get you and that was nice. I would have to say the snow was my favorite part about Missouri weather, which was always crazy. I learned to never trust a weatherman in the midwest, unlike here in the dry south where weathermen could be trusted. My new friends were pretty cool too, although I did miss my old friends back in Aussie. After my parents’ death, I stopped contacting them. 

Not wanting their sympathy. 

Not wanting the memories.

A small, sad smile formed on my face as I thought of my parents. I wasn’t one to talk to the dead. I never believed they were watching over me and never thought they could hear me. They were six feet under and their hearing had stopped ten minutes after their death. I didn’t see the point in talking to them.

Before I let myself become completely miserable with the memories, I pulled out my phone to continue the word game I started earlier with  _ Addybug _ .

Her first move was the word ‘ **joy** ’.

I chuckled at the irony.

**~~~~~~~~~~**

Two weeks later I was sitting in third period, auto mechanics. A class Mikey and me were supposed to take together - without others - but for some strange reason, Brooke was taking the same class. 

I always saw Brooke as more of a ‘live in the library’ kind of girl. Any time I saw her, she either had her head in a book or her head was bowed down as if she was scared of the world. I always left her alone. Like how I leave everyone alone. Yet on the first day of school, there she was, big goggles and all, looking determined to tear a car apart and put it back together. 

Honestly, I was impressed.

I was surprised when Mikey flicked  me with a small wave of his hand wearing the biggest grin I had ever seen, and left to go be partners with Brooke. 

Since then, I’ve been stuck with some grease monkey wannabe, whose name I still don’t care to know, with a nasally voice and a wart on his nose. Not that I’m complaining about the bloke. I’m just seriously confused as to why I was ditched for a girl. Not just any girl either, but a birdie that never seemed to talk to anyone, ever.

So, instead of listening to whatever the teacher was supposedly teaching us, I was still curious as to why she was  _ still _ participating in this class, an entire month later. On top of that, Mikey still had that stupid grin on his face. 

Every. Day.

Although, Brooke was giggling now and actually smiling sometimes. So I guess it’s now safe to say she isn’t a complete robot.

Two hours later, after a mind-numbing human anatomy and physiology test and English essay, there was lunch. 

The best 45 minutes of the day.

I sauntered out of English class, nursing a headache, went down the stairs to enter the courtyard that was slowly starting to fill. As if on auto-pilot, I headed to my bros’ favorite table, noticing it was gray and cloudy but I wasn’t worried. It hardly ever rained here. I set my stuff down at our table, which was outside in the courtyard, but close to a window so they could see if anything interesting was happening inside the cafeteria.

I was voted early on to be the one to hold our lunch table because nobody is dumb enough to touch my stuff as I waited in the lunch line.

Everyone beat me back to our table, all leaning towards Mikey.

“Raph! Dude! Just in time!”

“For wha’?” I asked, a bit skeptical.

“For this joke I just read online!”

“Oh.” I shrugged, nothing too serious then. Not like his jokes were ever really funny.

“Why do milking stools only have 3 legs?” He didn’t wait for us to respond, “because the cows got the udder!”

Next thing I know, Leo had milk spewing out of his nose, all over Mikey and his brimming tray of untouched food.

I couldn’t contain myself. I busted out laughing, keeling over, losing my tray of food to the concrete. I laughed harder, my booming laugh echoed around the courtyard, causing everyone to look our way in surprise.

It’s not every day Mikey gets me to laugh that hard.

I bent over, after I finally caught my breath, to pick up my ruined food and tray off the ground. As I went to stand up, most of the crowd was back to their own conversations, except one.

Directly inside the cafeteria, sitting at a table by the window, were two new birdies. I heard rumors that we had a couple new students and all the guys kept whispering about how hot they were. I didn’t believe them. I thought they were exaggerating, like usual. 

I was wrong.

The delicate looking birdie, sitting backwards in her seat looking at me, was the smallest, most beautiful creature I had ever seen. With curls down to her shoulders, eyes that seemed to look straight through me, and skin that looked to be colored by the sun. 

At first, she boldly met me in the eyes, something not many people do when they first see me, then surprise crossed her features as her face turned pink before she stood up, grabbed the girl sitting across the table, and ran off into the student infested cafeteria leaving her half-eaten tray of food behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: OHMYGOSH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING AN ACTUAL CHAPTER! :D
> 
> please, continue :)


	4. TWO: Donatello

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Another REAL chapter!? What!? :D

I really needed to use the bathroom, but I hated to leave my math class. I held it in as long as I could, but eventually I  _ had _ to go. I picked up the weird trinket from Hawaii that was our bathroom pass, and headed out the door. The teacher barely glanced at me. Just as I closed the door behind me, I saw something out of the corner of my eye, something falling. I spun around to find Ceci sprawled out on the floor. I called out to her as I moved closer, but she didn’t respond. I carefully checked her over but she seemed unharmed. Yet she was unconscious. I didn’t know what else to do, so I picked her up and carried her downstairs to the nurse’s office.

I laid her on one of the beds and turned to the nurse, panicked, “I don’t know what happened, she just collapsed!” The nurse patted me on the shoulder and started to explain to me what vasovagal syncope was. Basically, it means she faints from standing up for long periods of time and needs to drink a lot of water to help prevent it. Ceci, safe in the nurse’s care, I headed back to class, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what I could do to help prevent a future vasovagal syncope episode.

I skipped out on lunch and headed over to the nearest grocery store. I bought a second backpack, a sharpie, and pack of 36 bottles of water. I picked the ones with the purple labels because, who doesn't like purple? After I paid, I went outside and sat on the curb. I wrote Ceci’s name on every water bottle and put them into the backpack. I slung the backpack over one shoulder, my own backpack on my other shoulder and headed back to school. When I got back, there was still five minutes left of lunch so I hurried up the stairs to Ceci’s next class with Mr. Bullman. I sat the water bottle down on her desk. Everyone knew Ceci sat in the front and center of each class. I went back to the cafeteria downstairs to chat with with Shea and Max for the last couple of minutes of lunch. The only moment of note was when Raph yelled Splinter’s name across the cafeteria courtyard and Splinter went running to his side. Raph dropped his beefy arm over Splinter’s shoulder as I looked away. Whatever the reason for the commotion, I was sure I could wait to find out later.

I continued to put a water bottle on Ceci’s desk for every one of her classes that afternoon. She was always so busy I’m not sure she even noticed.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Splinter must’ve driven us home from school that afternoon, because my handwriting was practically illegible on my homework, in the same way Splinter couldn’t drive in a straight line. Once home, I went straight to mom and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Then I headed upstairs to finish my homework. As I reached the top of the stairs, I heard a latch click. Leo must’ve already locked himself in his room. To get to my room I have to go past Mikey’s room, I shuddered as I saw the mess through his open door.

Safely in my own room, I quickly unpacked my backpack to finish my homework. Just as I finished putting away the last of my homework I could smell something burning. I made my way quickly down the stairs to see mom was putting out a fire on the stove.

“Are you okay mom?” I picked up the pan and a spatula before she even responded, and started scraping the blackened chunks into the garbage disposal. At that very moment, dad called mom to see how things were going. Mom laughed nervously as she explained what had just happened. While she was on the phone, I passed her my cell phone so that she could order pizza online while I finished cleaning up the dishes that used to contain who knows what. She finished her conversation with dad just as I turned on the garbage disposal. The smell that wafted up reminded me of burnt flesh.

“Thanks Donnie, you’re always so helpful.” She sighed “I wish Raph and Splinter would look up to you more.” I chuckled, kissing her forehead.

“I assume everyone is downstairs as per usual?” Mom nodded and I headed towards the stairs to join them. Before I even reached the bottom of the stairs I could hear the TV. That meant Mikey had the remote. If Mikey had the remote, then Raph was on the weights because he could watch and hear the TV from the other side of the room without difficulty. If Raph was on the weights then Leo was probably working out with him. Which meant I could have the pool table all to myself.

I descended the rest of the stairs to find the boys exactly where I thought they would be. I picked out my favorite cue stick and racked up the balls. I managed to make it through one game before Mikey roped me into a video game. Then he roped Raph, Splinter, and Leo into the game as well. We probably played for 20 minutes before the pizza arrived. That’s the only time you would ever see Mikey move that fast.

After we stuffed ourselves with pizza- I think Mikey ate two by himself- we laid around browsing the different sports channels on TV. Splinter, who was sitting next to me, kept poking me. They say to make people stop doing something you don’t like, you shouldn’t acknowledge it. So, I was ignoring him. He continued to poke harder and more frequently.

“Hey Donnie, can you do me a huge favor?” He leaned over to whisper in my ear, I sent him a quizzical look before turning back to my pizza, “I can’t tell you here. Let’s go to your room.” I rolled my eyes, but followed him upstairs anyway. Once in my room, Splinter couldn’t help but bounce on his toes in anticipation. I nodded at him to continue, a smile slowly spread across my face. His enthusiasm was infectious. “Okay so can you make me a smoke bomb? A red smoke bomb?” He bit his bottom lip, clearly praying for me to agree.

“Sure I can! Just give me a few minutes here to...” I was already digging through my drawers of experiments notes. I didn’t even notice him leave. I found the recipe I was looking for and then I started hunting for the ingredients; potassium nitrate, sugar, red wax crayons, a gas cooker, a straw, needle nose pliers, matches, and a wiffle ball. I got to work. I worked on it until I couldn’t even remember what I was making anymore, then I decided maybe I should go to sleep.

In the morning, I decided to make one more smoke bomb. I had the other nine, plus a test bomb, carefully lined up on my desk next to the gas cooker. I turned on the gas cooker, which ignited a wick that had drooped too close. Before I got a chance to put it out, the smoke bomb ignited. Luckily, it was only the test bomb. I didn’t add any red coloring to that one, so the smoke was white. I opened my window and turned on the fan. Then I got back to work. As I worked I could hear yelling down the hallway. That must have been Splinter complaining because my- always pranking- brothers set off another stink bomb in the bathroom. That was the third time this week. “I should probably make some more.” I thought aloud.

A knock at my door a few minutes later made me jump. Mom stuck her head through the crack, “I’m just checking to see if everything’s okay in here.” Finding the source of the smoke to be a wiffle ball that was now on the floor, she nodded to herself and eased the door shut. I think my experiments still made mom uneasy, especially after the time I nearly blew up the house.

After finishing the tenth smoke bomb and making five more stink bombs, more potent than my last batch, I finally left my room to get ready for the day. I walked downstairs to the main floor and passed Splinter pouting on his way back up the stairs. I high-fived the smirking Raph before I entered the main floor bathroom. We could hear Splinter stomp the rest the way up the stairs. Mom gave us each an exasperated look before she turned back to her cooking.

Within minutes I was ready to go, so I decided to help mom finish up breakfast. As soon as I offered to help she passed me the floral apron, pointed to the eggs sitting on the counter, and marched up the stairs. I hypothesized she was going to have a talk with Leo for setting off the stink bomb. Raph was now leaning on the island as he played some game on his phone while I finished the scrambled eggs. When I clicked the burner off Raph looked up and smiled. He turned to the stairs and called everyone to breakfast. When the pounding of feet started down the stairs Raph and I grabbed a plate and dug into the food. I ate five pancakes with a heaping pile of eggs on top, smothered in syrup. It is was delicious. The eggs were done perfectly. Only slightly runny. The pancakes were, well I wasn’t sure how the pancakes tasted since they were drowned in eggs and syrup.

I pulled Splinter aside after breakfast and begged him to let me borrow his Jeep. The look on my face must have told him not to ask any questions because he only shrugged before handing me his keys.

After Splinter ran to catch the bus at the neighbors, and everyone else was cleaning up from breakfast, I snuck downstairs and grabbed the backpack, then went into the garage without anyone noticing and started the Jeep. I quickly drove around the front of the house and down the driveway to the road. 

The school was only 10 minutes away. I had her schedule memorized, so it only took me a couple of minutes to get to each of her classes and explain to the teachers what I wanted them to do. I asked each of Ceci's teachers to place a water bottle on her desk at the beginning of class. They were confused by my request, so I explained that I was concerned for her because she needed to be drinking more water. I'm not sure why each of the teachers smiled the same smile after I explained it to them, but I didn't have time to figure it out. I needed to get back home before anyone noticed I was gone.

They pounced on me the moment I walked through the door. They were all talking over each other. It took me a minute to make out what they were saying; 

“Where did you go?” 

“Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going?” 

“Who were you going to see?” and mom wanted to make sure that I knew I was not allowed out of her sight for the rest of the day or for the coming weekend.

I very quickly told them that there had been something that I had to do this morning at school. Mom gave me a skeptical look. 

"And what exactly did you have to do at school this morning?" She stood expectantly, her hands on her hips. 

"I um, well I…" She started tapping her foot, a clear sign of irritation. I sighed in defeat and rubbed a hand over the back of my head. “I was making sure this girl at school was going to be properly hydrated. She fainted yesterday because she wasn’t drinking enough water and it triggered a vasovagal syncope episode. I had to carry her downstairs to the nurse. Mom, if you knew this girl you would understand. She never stops moving. She’s always busy with something, something important because she  _ is _ someone important.” they all began to smile, oddly it looked very similar to the smile the teachers had. “To everyone in school because she is always helping everyone and planning all the events at school and on top of that she has a 4.1 gpa and is our class president and valedictorian, although I plan on beating her out for that before the year is over, and everyone knows who she is. I just don’t want her to have to try to remember to drink more water as well. I just want to help her like she helps everyone else...Will someone please explain why everyone keeps smiling like that!?”

Leo shook his head, still smiling, might I add, and walked away. 

“Are you talking about Ceci? That girl is  rippah ! She’s the best announcah at the Undah...nevahmind.” Raph looked sheepishly towards mom before he made a quick escape downstairs.

Mom patted my cheek, “I love you sweetheart, and I love your giving heart. I’m sure this girl appreciates what you’re doing for her.”

Mikey put an arm over my shoulder “Dude, one day you will understand. One day.” I shrugged him off.

After mom and everyone finished getting ready, we drove over to the cemetery at the edge of town. Mom found a bench to sit on, and we all went our respective ways to find our parents graves.

**Here Lies The Beloved Parents**

**Daniel And Amy Russell**

**Born: May 5, 1973 May 11, 1973**

**Deceased: August 23rd, 2012**

Mommy always loved daisies. I pulled out my pocket knife and started carving a fourth crude looking daisy into her shared tombstone with daddy. Has it really been four years since the accident? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the weekend, we all got a chance to relieve the stress incurred on the anniversary of our parents death through our respective arts. When mom and dad first adopted us they realized that we needed something to get our minds off of our parents so they found a list of classes offered around town and let us each pick what we wanted to do. We may have been a bit selfish because we all picked at least 3 classes we wanted to take, but mom and dad didn’t say a word about it.

All four of us took a 3 hour muay thai, judo, jui jitsu, and boxing class on Saturday. So basically it was an open gym with specialists there to help us improve our skills. Then we took a 50 minute shuriken class. The art of throwing stars was something that we all thought sounded cool.

On Sundays, Raph took a class on the art of the sai. Mikey had a nunchaku class. Leo took kenjutsu. And I had my bo staff fighting class. Personally, I thought bo fighting was the best. It was definitely my favorite class, outside of my chemistry classes at school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I have it! I h ave the next date!!” Splinter yelled the second he walked through the front door.

“Arnold Casey Jones Jr! How many times have I told you not to yell in my house?” 

“Sorry ma” He said, clearly not apologetic in the least.

“Hey Raph! Check it out..” Splinter and Raph put their heads together in the corner of the living room, both of them clearly excited. It must have been the next fight night date, and it must be soon. Mom sighed as she rubbed her forehead in the spot where she usually had her migraines.

After dinner I was busy in my room as I tried to recreate the flavor of soy sauce in a cracker, when someone very gently knocked on my door. Splinter inched the door open and slid through, closing it almost silently behind himself. It must have been really late now if he was being so quiet. I set down my dropper and moved to the bed. Splinter sat next to me, tense and anxious. 

“Well spit it out Splint.”

“Okay, so um, well you see, there's actually an opening in the program at the next fight night and I was hoping you might consider fighting. It's just this one time!” He yelled forgetting to be quiet for a moment “and I can find you someone to bo fight with afterwards if you want.” 

I hadn’t been interested in the least until he mentioned bo fighting. “Where are you going to find someone else that fights with a bo staff? I’ve not found anyone else outside of my trainer.”

“Well he can’t only be training you, now can he? He has to have other students otherwise he would have packed up and moved years ago.” His logic made sense.

“So hypothetically if you found someone for me to bo fight with what would I need to do?”

“You just have to do one bout in the octagon, underground rules.”

“Do you realize how dangerous it is to play by the underground rules?” Splinter nodded. I sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it, but only if you find me a bo staff fighter.” Before I even finished the sentence he jumped up off the bed and was halfway out the door. He slammed it shut. 

A second later he opened it again. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot, fight night is tomorrow. Be ready to leave by 8pm.” And he was gone. So much for having time to practice and prepare.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Splinter was in such a good mood the next morning that not even Mikey unscrewing the water faucet in the bathroom could get him down. By the time we got to school he was practically skipping. Raph, Leo, Mikey, and I all got away from him as quickly as possible, only to run into gangas 1, 2, and 3, as Raph called them. Never, before moving here, had I ever seen girls flirt in such a vicious manner. They reminded me of sharks in a feeding frenzy, and my brothers and I were the bait. 

Extricating ourselves from them as quickly as we could, we ran to our classes so that we wouldn’t be late. My first class was Spanish 5 with Señora Haro. It was a little strange having her this year instead of her husband. He taught all of the other years of Spanish but he didn’t enjoy traveling so his wife taught Spanish 5 because we got to go on a trip to Mexico to practice our Spanish for a week while we helped out the community.

As I jogged down the hall I witnessed a couple of girls bump into each other, which sent all of their papers flying. I knelt down to help them pick the papers up. 

“Which one of you is Nancy and which one is Adelaide?” I read their names off of the papers. Transfer papers. I checked my watch.

“I’m Nancy.” The taller girl replied, so I handed her the papers with her name and quickly passed the other papers to the girl that must have been Adelaide.

“Here you go. And welcome to Sunny high!” I called back over my shoulder as I jogged for the stairs. I was going to be late! I crossed the classroom threshold just as the bell rang. My perfect record was safe.

~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time my Chemistry of Foods class ended, I was starving. Why did I take that class right before lunch? Before going down to lunch, I went over to Mr. Bullman’s AP Calculus class and set a water bottle on Ceci’s desk. All set. Finally, it was time to eat.

I found Splinter, Leo, and Mikey in the lunch line and jumped in front of them.

“Hey!”

“Come on now, Mikey, you know I have to get in line in front of you.”

“Yeah otherwise we won’t get any food at all!” Splinter joked. Although he also moved in front of Mikey. Leo does too and when Mikey started to object again, Leo crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. Challenging him to come up with an argument that would have trumped ours.

Once at the table though, Mikey seemed to have forgotten all about the fact he was supposed to be pouting at us for cutting in line in front of him. 

“I read the best joke online today! Where’s Raph? I wanna tell you guys all at once.”

“When did you have time to get online and look up jokes?” He should have been listening to his teachers, not playing on his phone. 

“Raph! Dude! Just in time!”

“For wha’?” he asked, clearly on guard, as anyone should be when Mikey was in a mood this good.

“For this joke I just read online!”

“Oh.” He seemed almost disappointed. Raph never found Mikey’s jokes funny. Even I thought he could find some better material.

“Why do milking stools only have 3 legs?” He didn’t wait for us to respond, “because the cows got the udder!”

Suddenly, Leo had milk spewing out of his nose, all over Mikey and his brimming tray of untouched food.

We all cracked up. Raph laughed so hard that he forgot to keep his grip on his lunch tray and it fell to the ground. We laughed that much harder. Our laughing caused almost the entire school to turn and look at us, including those new girls I had seen this morning, seated on the other side of the window-wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: okay so I really hope you like this :) that's all


	5. THREE: Michelangelo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope you're liking it so far? Yeah? :)

“Breakkie!” 

The Aussie shouted, causing me to fumble out of bed all twisted up in my blankets. When I ran out of my room, Leo clotheslined me at the top of the stairs, which let Splinter get a head start in front of me before I fell down the stairway and rammed into the front door. When I finally managed to get up, groaning, I turned to see nobody even noticed I fell down the stairs. 

What a  _ great _ start to a  _ long _ day.

Granted, it wasn’t the most unusual thing that happened in this house on a daily basis. I shrugged it off as I glared daggers at Raph’s back for waking me up before my alarm went off. 

The moment I caught sight of the food a small smile formed on my lips. Maybe I could forgive Raph this one time.

Maybe this day wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Until I thought of  _ her _ .

Of  _ Bee _ .

The one person who stood up for me when I first moved here in the 8th grade. The one person who sat next to me every day at lunch. She said she would always be my friend. She said she would never leave me with bullies around- and she never did. 

Then, during the summer before high school I replaced my glasses with contacts and started working out with Raph to beef up. That way,  _ I _ could protect  _ her _ . 

I didn’t see her all summer. I was too scared to ask for her number before the year was out. I was barely able to tell her my name. Especially the day I met her. 

_ “Hey!” the girl in a yellow striped shirt exclaimed. The boys in front of me turned to see what the fuss was about. “What are you doing?” She demanded, more than asked, with her nose scrunched up, her eyes shooting daggers, and her hands on her hips. _

_ “Nothing,” the three boys in front of me replied, shaking their heads as they moved closer together, hiding me further into the corner they had been kicking me in. _

_ “Yes, you are,” she said matter-of-factly, moving a step forward. _

_ The boys shook their heads, acting innocent. _

_ “Who’s that,” she pointed at me. “Behind you,” she added when the boys didn’t answer. _

_ “Nobody,” the boy on the left shrugged. _

_ “Our friend,” the one on the right said. The kid in the middle stayed silent. _

_ “Drew?” The girl asked the middle boy. _

_ “We were just having fun,” he trailed off nervously. _

_ “Just having fun!?” She screamed, only inches from his face now. _

_ “I didn-” She slapped him across the cheek, the sound echoed through the empty hall. Her breathing was heavy as her face turned red with rage. The two other boys jumped back, wide-eyed like me, almost losing their balance when they bumped into me. _

_ The middle boy, Drew, didn’t even fight when she pushed him aside to see me hunkered in the corner with a bloody lip, stained clothes, and silent tears streaking down my face. More due to a recent tragedy than from the bullies. _

_ “Why?” she squeaked out. “Why, Drew?” She faced him, with a sad look in her eyes. He hung his head low in response. She shook her head in disappointment as she yelled at the other boys to move. They happily complied as they raced down the hall, leaving Drew behind with us. _

_ “Come on,” she said quietly, leaning down to grab my hand as she started dragging me down the hall with her. All the while thinking, “that slap must’ve stung. _

The smell of bacon shook me from my reverie. I was so caught up in the memory I didn’t notice Splinter had left and Donnie was already out of the kitchen.

“Dude,” I said, my voice muffled by cheese covered scrambled eggs.

“Yeah?” Raph asked as Leo looked up from his plate of food. I swallowed before continuing.

“Where’d Donnie go?” Leo shrugged, not seeming to worry. If Leo wasn’t worried, neither were we.

“Donnie, do you mind-” Mama Angie started as she looked around the room from the bottom of the stairs, dressed and ready to go. “Where’s Donnie?” With our mouths too stuffed to respond, we all shrugged.

“You don’t know?” She asked, confused. We nodded in confirmation. “Well, where in the world could he have gone? We only have a few minutes.”

“ Dunny ?” Raph asked as he headed to the sink, his plate now empty, even of crumbs. He’s the only one out of all of us that could eat as much as me. Granted, the guy never stopped working out.

“His room?” Leo suggested as he cleaned up his dishes.

“Oh! How about the basement?” I chimed, now finished with breakfast.

“I didn’t see him in the bathroom on my way down, or in his room,” she paused in thought for a moment. “Leo, would you check the basement, please?” He nodded and quickly headed downstairs as I finished up the dishes. Mama Angie grabbed a plate, a worried look on her face.

“He’ll be fine, mama,” I soothed as I put the last dish in the washer. 

“I know,” she sighed. “This is just so unlike him.” She was right. Normally Donnie always told her where he was going if he left the house. He always told someone, at least.

“Not in the basement,” Leo stated as he sat down next to Raph on the couch.

“That boy-” she stopped short when Donnie walked in the front door without a care in the world.

Without a moment’s pause, we railed on him.

“Where did you go?” 

“Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going?” 

“Who were you going to see?” 

“You better not leave my sight this weekend, young man.” Mama added in the end.

“I had to do something at school real quick. I knew it wasn’t going to take long so I didn’t think anyone would notice I was gone,” Donnie quickly answered once we gave him enough breathing room to respond.

"And what exactly did you have to do at school this morning?" Mama asked, standing expectantly, hands on her hips. 

"I um, well I…" He struggled. Eventually he sighed in defeat, rubbing a hand over the back of his head when mama’s foot started tapping in irritation, “I was making sure this girl at school was going to be properly hydrated. She fainted yesterday because she wasn’t drinking enough water and it triggered a vasovagal syncope episode. I had to carry her downstairs to the nurse. Mom, if you knew this girl you would understand. She never stops moving. She’s always busy with something, something important because she  _ is _ someone important.” We all glanced at each other with a knowing smile as Donnie stopped to take a breath before he continued his rambling. “To everyone in school because she is always helping everyone and planning all the events at school and on top of that she has a 4.1 gpa and is our class president and valedictorian, although I plan on beating her out for that before the year is over, and everyone knows who she is. I just don’t want her to have to try to remember to drink more water as well. I just want to help her like she helps everyone else,” he trailed off, giving us a strange look. “Will someone please explain why everyone keeps smiling like that!?”

Leo shook his head, still smiling, and walked away.

“Are you talking about Ceci? That girl is  rippah ! She’s the best announcah at the Undah...nevahmind.” Raph trailed off, looking sheepishly towards mama Angie before he made a quick getaway downstairs. It still surprised me that, for such a large guy, he was light on his feet.

Mama gave Donnie a pat on the cheek, “I love you sweetheart, and I love your giving heart. I’m sure this girl appreciates what you’re doing for her,” she said, heading back upstairs before we left for the cemetery.

“Dude, one day you will understand.” I told him, putting an arm around his shoulder. “One day.” I chuckled as he shrugged my arm off. 

Moments later, mama was heading back down the stairs, a book in hand, waving at us to move along. We quickly complied. I made sure to grab my orange board on our way out the garage.

**~~~~~~~~~~**

Mama sat down on her usual bench to read as all of us went our separate ways. The first time we visited our parents was only a few months after the accident. All of us went to Mama Angie and asked her to take us. We were miserable and all hoped our life was just a bad dream. Instead, it turned out to be our bitter reality. That was the last time mama had to comfort us at the cemetery. It was that night we all decided to be strong and to not cause too much trouble. Or at least,  _ try  _ not to cause too much trouble. 

I stood in silence once I got to my family’s grave. Every year I told them how I’ve been, how great Arnold and Angie were, that I’ve missed them and still love them, and if I had any fun memories to tell them about since I last visited. Every year, silent tears streamed down my face.

As for Alex, my older brother, I told him every little detail as if he was going to give me some wise, brotherly advice. Especially about Bee. It would’ve been nice to chat with him about her. He would’ve loved her like the sister we never had and he would’ve taught me how to make a move on her. To show her I care. Just like he taught me how to skateboard. 

I wasn’t sure if they could actually hear me or if they were even watching over me, but I always felt a little better after talking to them. 

As the years have gone by, my chats with my parents have grown shorter and shorter, not having quite as much to say. Which goes to show how exciting my life has been the past four years. If Alex could hear me, he was probably telling me to shut up about Bee and tell him something exciting about my nunchaku class.

I sighed, wiping away my tears, certain Mama Angie would notice. We were all lucky to have the people who adopted us. I hated to think where we would all be without them.

When I looked up, I saw two familiar girls a few rows down, hugging each other close after setting down a bouquet of brightly colored flowers. I unconsciously took a step forward to say hello before I realized they probably didn’t want me anywhere near their private moment. 

It was strange to see the girls somewhere so depressing. I never knew they lost a loved one, even though I’ve known them since I moved here. Ceci had been best friends with Splint since our sophomore year- his freshman year- when she started ‘tutoring’ him in math. 

It was funny the first day she was at our house to tutor him. We were all confused as to why such a beautiful girl was showing up at the house for Splinter, of all people. When she told us she was there to tutor him, we became even more confused. Splinter had at least a 3.5 gpa. It all made sense when Splint walked down the stairs wearing his best button-down shirt and khakis with his hair perfectly gelled to the side and cologne that could knock the poor girl out just by being in the same room with him.

Ceci, being the nice girl she is, didn’t even flinch when he greeted her. Thankfully, Donnie beat Splint at giving her a tour of our home as Leo gave the sign for Raph and I to get Splinter upstairs. After Raph shoved him in the shower, I turned the cold water on him to wash the cologne off. 

That was the day Splinter learned how to properly use cologne. 

I chuckled at the memory, causing mama to give me a baffled look. Instead of wallowing a while more, like I usually did, I went to sit next to her on the bench. She didn’t ask me any questions when I arrived. She barely even looked up, knowing all I really needed was her silent company. I appreciated her all the more for her understanding nature.

Afterwards, I was dropped off at the skate park, in hopes of distracting myself from the long morning. The warm wind blowing in my face always seemed to help perk me back up from a bad day, even if skating did remind me of Alex. It also kept me from thinking about the two girls I saw. One in particular, anyway. Seeing her there made me wonder why she never told me about her troubles. Granted, she never told anyone about her troubles. Not even when I caught some of the - in the wise words of Raph - gangas’ loyal minions bullying her.

I quickly shook that thought away, not wanting to make my bad day even worse.

**~~~~~~~~~~**

The Sunday after visiting the cemetery was my nunchaku class, along with my brothers’ separate classes. Raph had finished up his sai class as I was walking out of my nunchaku class when he waved me over to spar as we waited for Donnie and Leo to finish up their bo and kenjutsu classes.

Once Donnie and Leo finished up, Raph and I were drenched in sweat, gulping down our waters as I checked for any messages on my phone. 

Splinter had texted about an hour ago. Leave it up to him to message me at the worst possible moments.

**Yo. Bad time?**

**No. Wats up?**

**I need u 2 fight tomo nite.**

**Fight?**

**Ya. Underground. 8.**

**Wat type of fighting?**

**Any. Its the underground. No rules.**

**With who.**

**Dunno. Names are drawn from a hat.**

**Its random.**

**Dude.**

**I need u. And Donnie and Leo.**

**Raph?**

**Already fighting. Hes the main event.**

**Of course.**

**So?**

**I’ll be there.**

**SWEET!**

**~~~~~~~~~~**

I flew out of English - confident I aced the essay - down the stairs that led to the courtyard for lunch. Not worried about a table to sit since Raph always held one for us.

A few minutes after I made it to the lunch line, Splinter and Leo showed up, but when Donnie blatantly cut in front of me a couple seconds later, I got a little defensive.

“Hey!” I blocked him from cutting. Food was a top priority in my life and he knew better than to get in the way of that.

“Come on now, Mikey,” he said calmly, “You know I have to get in line in front of you.”

“Yeah otherwise we won’t get any food at all!” Splinter joked as he jumped in front of me as well, with Leo following right behind him.

“Wait a sec-” I stopped short when Leo gave me a knowing look with his arms crossed over his chest and a raised brow. I nodded in defeat. They were right, I would pile as much food on my tray as possible. Then, they would have to wait for the cafeteria ladies to add more food to the line. Which would take longer than they were willing to wait.  _ Impatient dudes.  _

By the time we got to our usual table I was over them cutting in front of me, happy with the substantial amount of food on my tray and my three cartons of milk. Which reminded me-

“I read the best joke online today!” I exclaimed, remembering it was the last one I read after I was done with my essay in English. “Where’s Raph? I wanna tell you guys all at once.”

“When did you have time to get online and look up jokes?” Donnie asked in a judgemental tone. He probably thought I was slacking. I ignored him as I kept searching for Raph. I just knew this joke was gonna get him to crack. He hardly ever laughed at them. So, of course, I took that as a challenge to find jokes that will get him to crack.

“Raph! Dude! Just in time!” I shouted when I found him.

“For wha’?” he asked, clearly on guard, as usual.

“For this joke I just read online!”

“Oh.” He shrugged, unimpressed. I started the joke anyway.

“Why do milking stools only have three legs?” I didn’t wait for them to respond. They never answered anyway. “Because the cows got the udder!” I guffawed.

For a split second, Raph stood there staring at me like I was a moron. Until milk was spewed all over me, myself, and I. Then Raph was bent over booming with uncontrollable laughter, dropping his tray and causing the whole courtyard to look our way.

When I looked up at the culprit, Leo, I was given a sheepish smile. Which was unusual since he didn’t normally laugh at my jokes either. Unlike Raph, I believed Leo was a lost cause to the world of comedy. In the  wise  words of Raph, “he’s one serious bloke.”

I stood up to go clean myself off and throw my untouched, perfectly ruined, tray of food away with Raph. Who had picked his tray up off the ground by now, when I realized he was staring at a couple of girls on the other side of the window-wall that separated the courtyard from the cafeteria. Bizarre thing numero dos;  _ the _ Raphael I knew didn’t normally notice girls, or stare at them, for that matter. When the constant line of girls came up to him, he seemed to enjoy the attention, but not once has he ever noticed the girl first.

I smacked him upside the head, getting his attention away from the now empty table the girls were sitting at.

“Come on,” I waved him along. “Let’s get rid of our ruined food.” Now, if only I knew which girl caught his attention and why Leo suddenly found my jokes funny.


	6. FOUR: Leonardo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Head's up, this chapter is a little longer than Raph's, I think.

I quietly slipped into Mikey’s room, not for his sake, the guy slept like the dead, but just in case Splint heard me and guessed what I was up to. I pried the loose baseboard from the wall and pulled out one of Donnie’s homemade stink bombs and turned to leave.

“Mmnmnm my babbling brook” Mikey sighed. I froze. There was no way I was going to be the reason he woke up. I would never hear the end of it. If anyone ever woke Mikey up before he was ready... I shuddered as I recalled him stomping down the stairs, glaring at anyone and everyone last time we were forced to wake him up. No, we just let Mikey get up when he was good and ready. Just then, he snorted and rolled onto his back and started snoring like a freight train. I was safe.

I made my way back down the hall to my room to grab a lighter. I heard Raph leaving the bathroom. Perfect timing. I stepped out into the hall only to find Splinter between me and the bathroom. He was just standing in the hall yawning. I made a run for it. 

The second I was through the door I slammed it shut and threw the lock. 

“No!!” Came Splint’s cry. A second later as I heard his whole body thud against the door. “Leo!” He cried out again, banging his fists on the door. “I’m gonna be late for school! Open up!”

“He locked it, Splinty,” I heard Raph call out “You know wha’ tha’ means,” Splinter groaned.

“Then you should’ve thought of waking up earlier!” I called back through the door. 

“You know I always wake up at 7 o’clock sharp! I need the time to perfectly-”

“Perfectly set my curls!” Raph and I mimicked, using girly voices so that Splinter knew just what we thought about his morning routine. 

“We know!” Raph boomed.

“Well, if you guys _ know _ , then why do you all  _ constantly _ plant a stink bomb in the bathroom  _ every _ morning at the  _ exact _ time I need it!”

I chuckled to myself, leaving Raph to have this conversation with Splinter, again. I do have to say though, we do not set off a stink bomb every morning. Sometimes we just really gotta go and we all take turns before letting Splinter in the bathroom because he takes FOREVER to get ready.

I checked my hair in the mirror. Hmm I was going to need to dye the streak blonde again soon. Using a little bit of gel, I perfected the part in my hair and the swoop of my bangs, before putting on my fedora. Perfect. Now, I had to go get dressed. Oh wait, I almost forgot the stink bomb. I cracked open the door for a quick getaway and lit the fuse. I exit the room and pull the door closed just in time. The hiss coming from in there told me that it went off perfectly. This time. One time, the bomb actually exploded and well, it took us several weeks of scrubbing to get rid of the smell. Sometimes I thought I could still..no wait that was the current stink bomb. I covered my mouth and nose as I headed back to my room. I quickly threw on a button down shirt and some jeans. I was just pulling on my sneakers when Mrs. Jones stepped in, waving a hand in front of her face.

“Leo, did you set off the stink bomb today?” She asked me overly calm, meaning she knew I did it but wanted me to admit it. I nodded. “You know all of your brother’s hair products are in that bathroom don’t you?” I nodded again. She sighed. “Then why on earth do you boys keep setting off stink bombs in there? He needs to be able to get ready for school. Just because you don’t have to go today doesn’t mean you can make him late.” 

“Duìbùqǐ, Mrs. Jones.” I replied quietly, my head bowed. “I forgot he still had to go to his classes today.” 

“You know the rules, you set it off, you clean it up. And since it’s probably going to make Casey late for school you are on bathroom duty for the next 3 weeks.”

“Yes Mrs. Jones.” I replied as I finished tying my shoes. Just then, I heard Raph calling everyone to breakfast. Completely forgetting Mrs. Jones was still in my room, I raced down the stairs, Mikey and Splinter on my heels, knowing that if both Raph and Mikey beat me to the food there wouldn’t be any left. I froze at the top of the stairs to clothesline Mikey as Splint ducked under my outstretched arm.  _ There _ , that ought to make up for the stink bomb.

~~~~~~~~~

It was a silent drive to the cemetery. No one wanted to talk about the accident.  At the cemetery Mrs. Jones found a bench near the middle and sat down with her book. Here to lend her support, yet keeping her eyes busy with her book so we can mourn privately. 

The gravestone was very simple but I had begged Mr. Jones to buy the blue stone instead of the traditional gray. Bà’s favorite color was blue. He said it signified liberty, justice, and democracy. He said those were things we should all want and māmā agreed. I missed my parents terribly. It was a constant ache in my chest. Everything reminded me of them. They both had worked hard to get me into the best private school Taiwan had to offer. When I graduated primary school bà took a job that required him to move to the States. A few month’s later he sent for māmā and me. When I started school here, I quickly realized that the English I had learned was very different from the English the American’s spoke, but I learned fast. Then I took what I learned and taught bà. Māmā didn’t want to learn a new English. She spent all of her time helping at a chinese restaurant, anyway. She hardly had to speak any English. 

A year later, we were finally going to go on a trip together. We were going to Phoenix, Arizona to see the sights and drive up to the Grand Canyon, through the Petrified Forest, and the Painted Desert. At the airport we found out our flight had been cancelled. The woman at the counter was very kind and patient with us as we tried to find another way to Phoenix. The only one we could find was a connecting flight through Los Angeles, California. Māmā was scared of flying so we put her in the middle seat. The safe seat. No windows to look out of and no aisle to have to talk to the flight attendant. 

_ It was a long and uneventful flight. Once at LAX, we found our new terminal and sat down to wait. It was a 3 hour layover, but that wasn’t nearly enough time to check out all the cool stuff nearby. In the candy shop, I ran into a kid wearing an orange hoodie “Oh man I’m so sorry” I said when I realized that by bumping into him he had gotten a sucker stuck to his front. But the boy just laughed.  _

_ “No big deal! I wanted to save this one for later anyway!” I laughed too and later I paid for both of our candies, partly because he had gotten so much he didn’t have enough money. _

_ After we parted ways, I went into a bookstore. In the back corner was a boy reading a book he had picked up. He was so engrossed in the book that he didn’t notice the shopkeeper coming over to take it away. _

_ “Hey! I was reading that!” _

_ “And you can finish reading it after you pay for it.” He snapped the book shut. I winced, knowing how hard it could be to find your page again once a book was closed. _

_ “Here’s a twenty. Now give me back the book.” The shopkeeper checked the price on the back and handed the book over to the boy, snatching the money out of his hand. _

_ “What book did you get?” I peered over his shoulder, trying to read the title. _

_ “It’s a biography on Garrett Morgan.” He replied. A smug look on his face. _

_ “Wasn’t that the guy that invented the first gas mask?” The smug look fell off of his face. _

_ “You know about him?” _

_ “Of course. I studied about him in my English class two years ago. We each had to pick an obscure inventor from America and write an essay about him. I wrote about Garrett Morgan. You’re going to enjoy that biography. It’s pretty good. Definitely not as dry as most.” I waved as I headed back out of the bookstore. The boy grinned and waved back. _

_ I watched a bulky kid in a red basketball uniform go into a room back by the bathrooms and I followed him. It was a gym. Probably for people getting off of really long flights and still waiting for another one. The boy went straight to the bench press machine and added another 50 pounds to what was already on it. I watched in awe as he benched it 20 times.  _

_ “Can you teach me how to do that without killing myself?” He looked up in surprise. _

_ “ _ _ Howzit goin’, _ _ ” He replied, looking me over. “Not if  _ _ yah reatin’ lollies  _ _ all the time.” I paused for a second, trying to figure out what he said through his thick Australian accent. After a second I smiled guiltily and quickly shoved the candy into my pocket.  _

_ “Special occasion.” I shrugged, waiting for him to show me how to lift the weights. _

_ “How much can ya bench righ’ now?” _

_ “I don’t know. I’ve never tried it.” _

_ “ _ _ Have a go. _ _ ” He stood up and signaled for me to lay on the bench. As I got comfortable he started removing weights from the bar. _

_ “What are you doing!?” _

_ “ _ _ Don’ get yah knickahs in a knot. She’ll be righ’,” _ _ he chuckled. “We have to know how much you can bench first. To do tha’ we have to take the weights off and slowly put them back on once I can see tha’ you can lif’ the curren’ weigh’.”  _

_ “Oh.” He pulled the last weight off of the bar and signaled for me to lift it up. Before I had moved it an inch he pushed it back down from above. _

_ “You have to put yah hands here and here, if you keep them tha’ close to the centah it will be impossible to balance the bah. Remembah to keep yah han’s shouldah width apar’ a’ all times.” We added weights until he was pretty sure he knew how much I could lift and then he took 5 lbs off of each end and told me to do 20 reps. By repping just under my maximum weight I could do the biggest workout. After just 5 reps though, I was done. “ _ _ That’s bewt, mate _ _. Especially since you had to do the weigh’ check firs’.” He grinned. I sat up, knocking my head on the bar. “Ooh, yeah you gotta watch ou’ fah tha’.” He was obviously trying not to laugh.  _

_ I grinned and stood up, rubbing my head. The boy checked his watch. “ _ _ Holy-dooly _ _! I gotta go. My parents are prob’ly lookin’ fah me. Our fligh’ boards soon.” _

_ “I should probably go too. I’m sure it’s almost time for my flight to board too.” We left the gym together and turned - the same direction. Where is your family going?” I asked. _

_ “Phoenix. My paren’s wanna see some dumb crack in the groun’.” _

_ “Really? That’s where I’m going too! Wanna sit by me on the plane?” _

_ “ _ _ It’s a goah _ _. Anythin’ to avoid listenin’ to my paren’s talk abou’ rev’ry fact abou’ the Gran’ Canyon known to man.” _

_ Back in the terminal, I noticed the boy from the candy shop and the boy from the bookstore getting on the plane to Phoenix with their parents. I went over to bà and explained that I wanted to sit with my new friend on the plane, since there was nowhere for us to go and he could easily keep an eye on me, he agreed. _

_ The boy in the red basketball uniform came running over, giving me the thumbs up. His parents must have agreed too. We grinned at each other. This flight was going to be so much more exciting than the last one.  _

_ “So I just realized that I don't know your name. I was trying to tell my parents who I wanted to sit with but, well it's hard to tell them who I'm sitting with if I don't know your name, ha ha." _

_ “Raph, mate. Yahs?” he asked. _

_ "The names Leonardo, but I hate that name, so just call me Leo." I replied with a smile. _

_ “No way! My name is short for Raphael,” he scratched the back of his head in thought. “Weird how tha’ turned ou’. Two famous dead guys,” he chuckled. _

_I laughed too as we took our seats, just in front of the_ _wing of the plane, so that we could see everything zooming by below us._

_ The guy in front of us turned around, "Did you just say you are named after a famous dead guy? Because I am too! My name’s Michelangelo, but everyone calls me Mikey." The boy from the candy store stuck out his hand for us to shake. _

_ “Rippah, mate! Gewd to mee’ you,” Raph did a sort of salute. _

_ “Whoa, dude!” The candy kid, Mikey, exclaimed. “Where’re you from?” _

_ “Straylia,” Raph nodded. _

_ “Down under, huh?” A guy next to Mikey turned, joining the conversation. “I’m Alexander. You know, another famous dead guy,” he chuckled and we all laughed. “Call me Alex.” _

_ “That’s pretty cool. We’re all named after famous people.” I said as I turned around to see where my parents sat. They were about five rows back. As I moved to turn back around in my seat I noticed the boy from the bookstore was sitting behind us reading his book. "So, do you like the book?" _

_ He nodded, his eyes never leaving the page. "My name's Donatello by the way, just add to your list of famous dead guys." He turned the page. “Everyone calls me Donnie.” _

_ "Nice to meet you, I'm Leo and this is Raph. In front of us is Mikey and Alex." _

_ “Hey, Donnie.” _

_ “Donnie the duuude.” _

_ “Please don’t ever call me that.” Donnie Scowled in Mikey's direction. _

_ “Sorry, dude-I mean Donnie. Donatello?” Donnie laughed at Mikey as he tried to figure out what to call him. _

_ “I apologize for my little bro, he can be a bit nuts at times.” Donnie waved him off. _

_ “No worries, mate,” Raph said with a smile. “Seems  _ _ dinkum _ _ to me.” _

_ I laughed and clapped Raph on the shoulder, “We’re gonna have to work on your American English man.” _ __

_ “Maybe,” he shrugged. _

_ “There’s no maybe about it. I’m not entirely sure I understand half of what you’ve said so far.” Donnie put in. _

_ “Well, when I said dinky, I meant he seems like a gewd bloke,” Raph explained. _

_ “Dude, if you start explaining everything you say we will never be able to talk about anything fun, like cheese!”  _

_ “No worries, then, I can speak yah yank language if you need me to,” he shrugged. “But if you seriously think cheese is a fun topic, you need to learn how tah fight.” _

_ “Fight? You mean you fight too? No wonder you’re so huge!” I exclaimed. _

_ “My parents believe in being able to defend yourself. Can’t blame ‘em. Especially movin’ to a new country where you don’ know anyone.” _

_ “I can understand that, although my parents are pacifists so they just expect me to stay within eyesight. At. All. Times. They’re suffocating me,” I sighed. _

_ “That’s buggah, mate.” Raph shook his head sympathetically. _

_ “Hey,” Alex piped in. “Where are you from anyway?” _

_ “Earth.” I chuckled, “Nah, I’m messing with you. I’m from Taiwan.” _

_ “That’s actually not all that far north of Australia Raph.” Donnie supplied. _

_ “Dudes, you two are practically neighbors then!” Mikey cracked himself up. Raph and I looked each other over and rolled our eyes. Neighbors, right. _

_ “Dude. Bro,” Alex shook his head. “Totally not neighbors, man.” _

_ Just th _ _ en the flight attendant got on the PA system and started going over the safety protocols. We settled into our seats to wait for take off. The pilot got on the PA to announce that the weather was clear and we would be in Phoenix in less than two hours. Time for take off. _

_ “Dude, Mikey.” I heard Alex whisper. “Check out that flight attendant. Pretty hot, right?” _

_ “Uh, y-yeah,” Mikey replied, sounding a bit nervous. “S-s-sure dude, wha-whatever you say.” _

_ “No need to be nervous. This is the best part!” I leaned forward and stage whispered because the engines were loud as they warmed up. He turned to Alex. “I give her a seven.” _

_ “Yeah mate. This is nothin’ like the flight from Straylia. Only a couple of hours to Phoenix. Not the days it took to get here,” Raph said, before adding, “Nah, mate. I’d give the  _ _ trolly dolly _ _ somethin’ more like an eight.” _

_ “That’s what I’m saying, man!” Alex awkwardly extended his arm back over the seat and gave Raph a high five. _

_ “Are you really rating that stewardess? She’s almost old enough to be our mom.” Donnie added, disgusted. _

_ “So you wouldn’t rate her above a three then?” I taunted. _

_ “Well, No. I would give her at least a five.” _

_ “Dude! Only a five!? Even I would give her a seven, but” He held up his hands “I’m gonna give her a nine!” Mikey wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. _

_ “Dude!” Alex punched his arm. “She’s waay too old for a nine! Once they’re more than ten years older you cannot and I mean you really can’t score ‘em above an eight.” We all laughed as Mikey blushed. _

_ “Yeah,” Raph agreed. “Even we Straylians wouldn’t give someone as old as her anything over an eight.” _

_ Donnie just shook his head, disgusted with the lot of us.  _

_ We were laughing so hard at Mikey’s blunder we forgot to watch the houses shrink below us during take off and now we were far up into the clouds. I looked out of the window as I tried to catch my breath. _

_ “Knock knock.” a pause as he waited for Alex to respond, to no avail. _

_ “Knock knock.” _

_ “Fine,” Alex groaned, “ who’s there, Mikey?”  _

_ “A broken pencil.” _

_ “A broken pencil who?” _

_ “Never mind. It’s pointless,” Mikey laughed. _

_ “I got a better one for you bro,” Alex chuckled at Mikey’s lame attempt at a knock knock, yet wasted no time in telling a joke himself. None of the other boys even managed to fake a laugh before Alex began his joke. _

_ “Okay!” Mikey piped in, not having minded that no one thought his joke was very funny. _

_ “What does the stewardess say to the man carrying two dead raccoons onto the plane?” _

_ “I dunno.” _

_ “I’m sorry sir, but we only allow each passenger one carrion!” I laughed so hard that I cried. Then, I laughed even harder because Raph’s laugh was so loud I was sure he was going to laugh the plane to pieces, or at least cause the flight attendant, Angie, I think she said her name was, to come shush us. _

_ As the laughter subsided, Alex spoke up again “Dudes, I laughed so hard I’ve gotta pee!” He quickly got up from his seat and moved toward the bathroom. _

_ “Attention passengers, this is your pilot, Arnold, speaking. there appears to be some turbulence ahead. Please stay calm, fasten your seatbelts, and remain seated. Angie stood at the front of the plane and showed everyone how to fasten their seatbelts again before seating herself. She barely had the seat belt fastened when we hit the turbulence.  _

_ I had never felt turbulence quite that rough before. Someone in the back was already screaming. I heard several people praying out loud. I gritted my teeth and held onto the armrests. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and then a constant whining that sounded almost like a woman crying out, maybe it was. The oxygen masks fell from the ceiling and I fumbled to put mine on. Raph and I both reached in front of us to help Mikey- who was panicking- put his on. Raph and I looked at each other. I knew right then that nothing about this turbulence was normal.  _

_ Another bang and I saw smoke streaming out of the left side engine just as the plane tilted in that direction. We probably would have fallen across the plane if we hadn’t been buckled in. The plane righted itself painfully slow. I noticed then that I was looking down at the front of the plane instead of up like I was earlier. Just as I was about to point this out to Raph, the pilot spoke again.  _

_ “I’m sorry folks. There has been a mechanical failure in the left wing. I’m afraid we are going to have to crash land the plane. I’m aiming for a clearing just outside of Sunnytown, Arizona. I have already sent them our coordinates. Help will be there waiting for anyone who needs it.“ The PA system crackled and went silent. Angie, the flight attendant was crying now. She said something about her son, then we hit the trees. _

I don’t know if we were lower than the pilot thought or if the trees were taller, but I do know that I will never forget the  screeching sound of trees and metal scraping together. 

_ The next thing I remembered, I was lying on a hospital bed, watching the lights in the ceiling as I went past.  _

_ “He’s awake!” _ __

_ “What’s your name son? Do you know where you are? Do you know what day it is? Do you know how old you are? What are your parents names?” I was so disoriented and the questions came so quickly, from many different doctors and nurses, I was at a loss for words. I didn’t know which question to answer first. _

_ “My na-names Leo.” I managed to scratch out. My throat oddly dry. “I’m 13.” I said as my voice was slowly coming back to me. “It’s August 23rd, I think.” I cleared my throat. “Why am I here?” _

_ “You were in an accident. Do you remember what happened?” _

_ “I was...I was on a plane. We were going to land in a clearing. There was smoke...and trees. Lots of trees. The pilot said.. He said something about it was going to be sunny.” I looked at the doctor, waiting for him to explain why the pilot said it was going to be sunny. _

_ “Okay, well son, the plane you were on crash landed 4 miles shy of Sunnytown. It never made it to the clearing.” The doctor looked at me sympathetically as he parked my bed between two others. I tried to look around but realized I was wearing a neck brace.  _

_ “Wait. Am I okay? Where are my parents? Where’s Raph, and Alex, and Mikey, and-and-and Donnie? Where are my friends? Where’s bá and māmā?”  _

_ “Calm down son. You’re going to be alright. You have a concussion and whiplash. You also have three floating ribs so don’t try to sit up. You’ve also fractured you’re right leg. Besides that you have quite a few bruises including a black eye. It looks like you got punched.” The doctor chuckled, trying to lighten the mood, but I remembered a large hand hitting me.  _

_ “I think I did get hit.” I said giving the doctor a small smile. “Raph was sitting next to me and he’s not a small guy.” _

_ “Raph,” the doctor mumbled making a note on his clipboard. “Can you tell me what he looks like? What was he wearing?” _

_ “It was a red basketball uniform. He’s really tall and really buff. Oh, and he has short brown hair and he’s from Australia.” The doctor continued to take notes. “His real name is Raphael.” _

_ “Raphael what?” _

_ “Oh. I don’t know. We never got around to that part. We just met today. Both of us are going to see the Grand Canyon with our families. He wasn’t very excited about it, though.” A second doctor came into the room and whispered something to the doctor I was talking with. My doctor frowned and nodded. He turned back to me.  _

_ “Okay so what about your other friends, what do they look like?” _

_ “Umm, Mikey, I mean Michelangelo who’s about my height, tells the dumbest jokes, they aren’t even funny, always smiling though, shaggy blonde hair, glasses, really skinny, he has a lot of acne… And his brother Alexander is basically the older version of him except black hair and taller without the acne, he looked like he might have been 17. …. Donnie, Donatello, umm he’s got short brown hair, he was reading a biography of Garrett Morgan, he has glasses too but his are smaller. They look better than Mikey’s. Mikey’s glasses make him look like his face is too small or something.” _

_ The doctor wrote furiously on his clipboard as he tried to keep up with what I was saying. “Alright,” He said as he clicked his pen. “I’m going to go find out how your friends are doing and then I’ll come back and let you know.” He smiled and walked through the door at the far end of the room.  _

_ I turned my head as far as the neck brace would allow. Trying to figure out who was on the next bed. He had dark hair and he looked pretty skinny. He was looking the other way though, so I couldn’t see his face. It took me another minute to realize it was Alex. They had him hooked up to at least six different machines, all beeping away. As I watched, nurses moved around him adjusting different monitors and things. _

_ “Hey! Alex!” I called out. “Alex!” The nurses looked over at me. _

_ “He can’t hear you. His eardrums were broken in the crash.” _

_ “Oh. Well then have him look this way and I’ll make faces at him.” The nurses consulted amongst themselves before deciding it couldn’t hurt, and turned his head my way. In the middle of gently turning his head, one of the monitors began to beep wildly, then another and another. The nurses quickly called for Doctor Sorkin. He was there within seconds. They pulled the curtain around Alex and went to work. The only thing was, it didn’t work. I laid there listening as the heart rate machine flatlined and was shut off.  _

_ “Time of death, 5:26 PM August 23rd, 2012” Then silence. The doctor and the nurses left silently. All of them having forgotten about me during all of the commotion. I laid there, crying. Separated from Alex’ body by a thin curtain. It was my fault. If I hadn’t asked them to turn his head to look at me...I cried harder and it felt as if my heart was being ripped out of my chest. How was I ever going to face Mikey? Was Mikey even alive? Was anyone alive? The thought that someone else could be dead as well made me cry even harder.  _

_ The nurse that had helped move me in here and hook me up to my own heart rate monitor came into the room. “Shh, you need to relax. Someone get Dr. Carpenter in here!” She called out through the open door. He arrived within a minute, but this time he had blood on his white coat. I continued to cry. He told the nurse to inject something into my IV. Soon, I was relaxed and drifting off to sleep. _

_ I woke up in a different room, this one with three other patients. I easily spotted Raph by his big frame. He had a cast on his right arm and a bandage around his head. Next, I saw Donnie. He was sporting several cuts on his face and arms, and his ribs were wrapped like mine. I saw Mikey last. He was sitting up more than the rest of us, although he did have a foot propped up and covered in ice packs. I quickly looked away from him.  _

_ “Hey dude, nice of you to join us.” Mikey said, unusually quiet. _

_ “What took you so long to join us?”Donnie asked. _

_ “Dudes, when they finally bring Alex in here we’ll have to get him to tell a joke to lighten the mood.” I swallowed hard and stared up at the ceiling. _

_ “Okay, since you asked, I’ll tell you another knock knock joke while we wait. Knock knock.” _

_ “Who’s there?” Donnie asked, humoring him. _

_ “Europe” _

_ “Europe who?” _

_ “No, you're a poo!” Mikey cracked up. Donnie gave a small fake laugh, while Raph rolled his eyes. _

_ “That’s bodgy, mate.” _

_ Just then, the door swung open and four different doctors came in, as well as several nurses. “Excuse us, but we need to talk to each of you privately. So we will be taking you each out of the room for a short period of time. Leonardo,” the unfamiliar doctor called my name, “You’re going to speak with Dr. Carpenter.” As he finished saying that, a nurse came over, unlocked the wheels of my bed, and started pushing me towards the door. “Mikey you will be speaking with Dr. Sorkin.” Then I was out of the room.  _

_ “Leonardo, I-” I stopped Dr. Carpenter there. _

_ “My name’s Leo.” _

_ “Okay, Leo then,” He cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.” He glanced at the nurse, who I just realized was the same one from before and she had another syringe poised near my IV drip. I looked back at the doctor. “You already know Alex passed away, what you don’t know yet is that your parents died in the crash as well. I’m terribly sorry for your loss.” _

_ I stared at him, not comprehending, not speaking. They couldn’t be gone. They were always watching over my shoulder, always looking out for me. Later, once they realized I wasn’t going to cry and hurt myself more than I already had last time, I cried, they wheeled me back into the room with the others and I saw similar looks on their faces. Were we all orphans now? _

I sniffled and wiped away the stray tear that had fallen. The others must be ready to go by now. I felt like I had been sitting beside the grave for a lifetime. With a quick prayer to the heavens, wishing for my parents to be happy, I got up and headed over to the bench Mrs. Jones always sat at to wait for us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

**Leo! My man!**

**Wat do u want Splint**

**I need ur help**

**y? Ask Raph**

**Cant. He’ll b busy**

**Wat do u need**

**I need u 2 fight @** **the underground**

**No**

**I need u tho**

**No**

**Mikeys gunna fight 2** **and sum1 has 2** **look out 4 him**

**Crap ok fine but** **if i get matched** **against a girl** **again...**

**Tomoro nite** **@ 8 dont b l8**

**How can i? We live** **together**

**Just be ready 2** **go on time**

I sighed. There was no getting out of it this time. Who knew who Mikey might tick off with those awful jokes of his.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After skirting gangas 1, 2, and 3 on the way into school, I quickly made my way to English 12. A class I shared with Brooke. When I walked in I overheard Paula and Ramiro beginning to tease Brooke. Instead of taking my usual route to my desk, I instantly made my way behind Brooke, without her noticing, to stare down the culprits. Almost instantly, they backed off. Understandably so. Next to Raph I was the second bulkiest of us brothers and everyone knew that if you messed with one of us, or someone we liked, then you had best be prepared to face the consequences. 

Brooke glanced up from her book as I slid into my seat next to her, nodding to each other in greeting. There was more chatting going on than normal for a dreary Monday morning, so I decided to tune in and find out what was going on. 

“Apparently there’s two new girls here today. Two! Can you believe it? They actually transferred here their senior year.” A petite blonde girl, who’s name escaped me, spit.

“They were pretty hot. I saw them in the hall this morning.” The boy got an elbow to the ribs from the girl for his comment.

Another girl named Alisha, I think, replied in a worried tone, “Oh, no. What if Raph, or his brothers notice them? We have to do something.”

A third girl, called Latisha, glanced my direction before saying, “Oh please, none of them notice girls. Their little brother, Splinter, is the only one that seems to notice us girls, and well, he’s far from normal himself.”

“So, we’re not going to do something to keep the brothers from noticing them?”

“Of course we will! I’m going to go up to them when I see them, and start talking to them, and get them to come with me to the nearest bathroom. You two will follow us in and then..” The blonde signaled cutting off their heads. The other girls nodded in agreement, smiling. The boy just rolled his eyes.

This couldn’t be good.

After class, I followed the three girls into the hall. The blonde pointed to someone coming out of a class two doors down. Had they really seen the new girls already? What was the likely hood of that? I saw a petite girl with brown hair, looking slightly lost in the hallway at the same moment as the blonde started making her way towards the girl. Her walk purposeful. 

I walked faster. With my long legs and well muscled body, it was as if the people were a sea parting before me. It took me less than three seconds to catch up to the blonde and cut her off. I slowed down in front of her and looked around as if I were waiting on someone, effectively blocking the blonde from reaching her destination. The next time I looked toward the tunnel hall, the new girl was nowhere to be seen. I sighed with relief and walked to trigonometry class.

By the time lunch came around, I felt as if my eyes were on a constant swivel. Looking for both the blonde, her name was Brittney, and the new girl. I hadn’t seen either of them since the end of my first class. I could only hope they hadn’t run into each other yet.

I found the blonde already sitting at a table in the cafeteria with her friends. Good. Feeling slightly more at ease I joined my brothers in line to get food.

Once we had our food and sat down in the courtyard, I scanned the room again. There, just on the other side of the window-wall, sat the new girl. Or should I say, girls. Sitting across from her was a stunningly beautiful Asian girl with brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She and the petite girl were talking and laughing. She glanced my way. Our eyes locked. She quickly looked back at the shorter girl and laughed at something she had said. I loved her smile. I was sure her laugh would be just as beautiful as she was. She cupped her hand over her perfect lips to say something to the short girl. Her hands were...her hands were calloused, like a fighters’. If she knew how to fight, I might have walked over and asked her to marry me right then and there. 

“Why do milking stools only have 3 legs?” I forced myself to look away and tune into what my brothers were talking about. 

“Because the cows got the udder!” Mikey exclaimed excitedly as I finally took a drink of my milk. 

The milk went everywhere. All over me, all over Mikey, and all over both of our trays of food. It certainly burned to have milk come out of one’s nose. 

Holding the bridge of my nose in pain, I quickly stood up to leave the table and clean myself up. That particular type of joke had reminded me of Alex. 

At that exact moment, the blonde got up from her table with her friends, they were obviously moving towards the table with the most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on and her short friend. I ran for the door to the cafeteria. There was no way I was going to let them meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So that's all for the boys' POV! Which was your favorite?
> 
> Coming up, the new girls! :)


	7. FIVE (Part 1): Adelaide

_**Wurst_Nitemare** **Challenges Addybug**_

_**Do You Accept?** _

_**YES or NO** _

I stood there for a good minute staring at the unfamiliar username on my phone. The word game proved we had no mutual friends. The same word game I hadn’t touched for months. The same word game my old friends told me was lame. I was going to uninstall it from my phone that day, I really was, but I liked it. So I kept it, thinking I would get the gumption to maybe, possibly, someday very far away, ask Keith, the guy I had a crush on, to play it with me. I had secretly seen him play the game during one of our classes.  _ That sly boy _ . 

Before I ever gained that particular gumption, I was shipped to my mother’s. Willingly, might I add. My time in the hospital for the past month had given me  time to think and I realized around day three of consciousness that my friends were lame and Keith was a jerk when I saw a post that, in a roundabout way, completely dissed me. All his cute smiles in my direction and the little waves he would send me - were lies. Come to find out, he was dating my best friend. Who, by the way, was the one who kept encouraging me to go after him. Talk about a- word I would seriously prefer not to say.

Now, there I was, standing in the perfectly white hospital room I had been in for basically a month, waiting for the nurse to bring a wheelchair just so I could leave. Then-

BAM!

My phone went off, notifying me that someone was challenging me.

Did I accept the challenge? Even though his username wasn’t exactly the most positive thing I’ve read?

Yes. Yes, I did.

Why?

Because I literally had no friends left in this world, my brain may have possibly started vegging out during my time in the hospital, and my mother’s rambling was getting a bit tiresome. So much so, I had started talking to myself, obviously. 

I needed something new.

I needed a challenge.

And I only had one vowel.

Joy.

Oh! J - O - Y

Yay! Fourteen points for me! I did a victory dance, none too gracefully, as the nurse walked in pushing a wheelchair I assumed was for me.

I plopped in the wheelchair before she even had time to set the brakes. I wanted out of this place. Too many disease ridden people. Too many fake smiles. Too much sympathy. Bring on the real world! 

By the time I got home I was starting to get nervous about Wurst_Nitemare. He, if he was a he, had yet to take his turn. I was starting to think  he accidentally challenged me. If that was even possible. Or, maybe he decided I suck at the game because I started with a three letter word. Granted, I did get fourteen points out of it. 

In the end I decided my thoughts were absolutely ridiculous so, I hid my phone under my pillow and ran downstairs to the kitchen. Real food sounded  _ real  _ good. Hospital food could get pretty old,  _ pretty  _ fast.

“Okay,” my mom started as I had literally just stuffed a sugary sweet cake snack in my mouth. “Well, that’s a sight to behold.” She giggled. I accidentally spit food out trying to stop my giggles from escaping. “Anyway,” she continued as I grabbed a paper towel to wipe up my chunks of pre-chewed sugary cakiness. “I have to go through a wedding rehearsal with a bridezilla tonight and may not be back ‘til late. Do you think you’ll be alright here by yourself?”

“Yeah,” I said after painfully swallowing down the rest of my snack. “I’ll be  fine mom. Don’t worry. It’ll be nice to have the place to myself.”

“Okay. Promise you’ll call me if you need anything.” She gave me a pointed look, as if I wouldn’t call her if I did.

“Promise,” I nodded, rummaging through the kitchen cabinets looking for the ingredients for ooey gooey butter cookies. Obviously, the hospital was lacking in the sugary goodness category they allowed me.“Good. I’m leaving. Have a good night. Call me if you need anything,” mom reiterated before giving me a kiss on the forehead.

“Got it,” I replied absentmindedly as she walked out the back door that was attached to the kitchen. Once done with baking the cookies I grabbed my laptop to look for a horror movie to watch. I was thinking Freddy or Jason. Or even better; both.

With a plate of cookies in one hand, my laptop in the other, and a blanket around my  shoulders, I headed to the couch ready for a good classic.

I was snuggled up with my fifth cookie in hand when I saw the shadow outside the living room window.

I paused the movie and closed my laptop, worried whoever was out there would know someone was in the house. Thankfully, I turned off all the lights before I started watching the movie. 

I was trying to keep calm. I really was, but my breathing became heavy and ragged. My palms started sweating and every little creak of the house was causing me to panic, which made my heart speed up and thump harder than felt comfortable .

_Tap-tap._ I heard from somewhere behind me. I hid even further under my fuzzy blanket, covering my head. It was at this point I realized my phone was upstairs. I cursed under my breath when I realized my stupid mistake. All because of some person I was being impatient  with.

After a few breaths, the tapping became louder, more insistent. I was now attempting to mold into the couch, hoping to become  _ one  _ with it.

A moment later the tapping ceased. I breathed a sigh of relief that was cut short when I heard the unmistakable sound of jingling keys. Keys should be a good thing, right? Not in my world. Not where I just moved from. There, jingling keys meant danger. The door creaked open while my mind raced to find a solution on how to get out of the house or, at least, to my phone.

“Hello?” I heard a hoarse voice call out in the darkness. 

I held my breath, too afraid to move and now rethinking my movie decision making skills. If only I had picked out a comedy. One can never go wrong with comedies.

“Adelaide?” The voice said. 

It was now or never, I decided. I quietly set the half eaten plate of cookies down  on the coffee table beside me. 

Shuffling feet caused me to pause before I quickly stood up, flinging the blanket over the back of the couch, and started crawling my way to the stairs when the lights suddenly turned on.

“Aaaaahhhh!” I screamed like a little girl, terrified out of my skin as I jumped up to see the 

intruder was - an old lady with wide eyes staring in my direction.

One beat. Two beat.

“Aaaahhh!” the lady screamed belatedly. Which caused me to scream again before the lady laid her hand on her chest as she took deep calming breaths. I mirrored her actions without realizing it. Slowly my heart went back to its normal rhythm. Slowly, my breathing became not-so-ragged.

“Don’t do that, young lady,” the woman reprimanded, now calm and obviously thinking straighter than I. “You ‘bout caused me to have a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” I apologized bashfully.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” she stated, clearly over our almost deaths. “You’re Adelaide, right? Your mother asked me to come check on you. She said you weren’t answering your phone and she got worried.”

“Oh, sorry. I left it upstairs in my room.”

“I see. Well, I’m Mary Jo. I live next door. Anna, a friend I live with, and I are always here if you need anything.” Mary Jo declared. “Or, if you’re ever just plain bored, you come on over and we’ll make you something to eat.”

I nodded, still in shock. 

“Well, I’ll see you soon,” she turned to go. “Be sure you tell your mother everything’s all right.”

“Will do, Miss Mary Jo,” I called out to her, my voice hoarse from screaming.

**~~~~~~~~~~~**

The weekend came and went without any other  near death experiences. Unfortunately, that meant I  **** lived another day - Monday - at a new school, with new people, and nobody to show me the ropes. Talk about terrifying. 

There I was, walking in unfamiliar territory, staring down at my phone, trying to figure out what my next word was going to be when I bumped into a fellow student, causing my loosely held transfer papers to fly out of my hand.

“Umpf,” we collided, causing me to step backwards. 

“I am so sorry,” I exclaimed quickly, finally looking up from my phone, which miraculously, was still in my hand.  _ Priorities.  _ “I was not paying any attention and I’m supposed to be looking for the office, but I was so engrossed-”

“It’s fine,” she cut me off, smiling gently. “I’m looking for the office too.”

“Do you know where it is?” We simultaneously asked each other, giggling when the realization dawned that we were both just as lost  as the other.

“Which one of you is Nancy and which one of you is Adelaide?” A tall muscular boy asked, making us jump in surprise. My fellow collider recovered first when the guy looked down at his watch clearly in a hurry. 

I’m Nancy,” she replied. He handed some papers to her, then handed some to me as well. 

“Here you go. And welcome to Sunny High!” He called over his shoulder as he jogged his way through the crowded cafeteria, away from us. Our only hope in finding the office.

“Oh,” I heard Nancy say as she pointed to the door next to us. “Looks like we found the office.” 

“Or the ‘ICE’ as the sign says,” I stated, causing us to go into another fit of stomach clutching giggles.

“Yes,” we replied between giggles as we gasped for breath.

“I am so happy to see you two young ladies with smiling faces on your first day at a new school,” the lady smiled. “And your  senior year, no less.” 

“So it’s your first day

here too?” We asked each other, smiling. 

“I’m so happy I’m not alone,” I confessed. 

“Me too.” She said, still smiling.


	8. FIVE (Part 2): Nancy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I really, really hope you are enjoying yourself! Although, I suppose if you've gotten this far you probably are :) Thanks again for reading!

Crack!  I hit him with a left cross that sent him reeling. No one ever seemed to remember that not everyone in the world is right handed. I followed it up with several jabs to his torso. He held out his right arm to keep me at bay so I grabbed it and threw him over my hip. I could hear the air leaving his body as he hit the ground. I started pounding on him with several hammer fists and left hooks. I continued to pound on him until he stopped moving, not fighting back anymore. That would teach him not to mess with ambassador Wang’s daughter.

I stood and walked back to the main street. I found a nearby restaurant, and went inside to clean up. I yawned as I went back outside and pulled out my phone to call my dad. “Hey dad, I need a ride home. A friend tried to set me up on a  date and well, it didn’t work out. Call me back when you get the chance.” I sighed, put my phone in my pocket, and started walking.

As I walked, I stretched out my hand. That boy had a hard jaw. I wondered what group would send someone so young totry and kidnap me. I wasn’t even sure why they would want to kidnap me, my dad was just the ambassador from Taiwan. Dad was going to have a field day when he found out about this.

I ended up walking all the way home, where I was greeted by the two guys that guard the gate to the house. I explained to them what had happened so they would know to be on the lookout for anything strange going on nearby.

~~~~~~~~~~~

**two months later**

I leaned my head against the car window and sighed. It had only been the one little incident. Why did dad think that we had to  move to some town in the middle of nowhere, on the other side of the country. Not to mention the town was practically in the desert. It wasn’t even a big deal, it was only one guy and I fought him off easily. Not to mention senior year had already started and now I was going to be the new girl. This couldn’t get much worse.

“Welcome to Sunnytown. Where the sun shines on smiling faces.” I read the sign with disgust and looked up at the sky. It was hard to believe the sun was ever hidden behind clouds, considering there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was a million degrees out. “Gary please tell me that we’re almost there.” I begged the driver.

He chuckled “Yeah Nanc, we’re almost there. Just a few more minutes.” I sighed and looked back out the window. We passed what looked like a burnt out shell of an airplane with a sign that read “Museum: In remembrance of all those  lost.” I was fairly certain the airplane wasn’t to code or that it was safe to walk into without it falling down on top of you.

“What happened there?” I asked Gary.

“There was some plane crash that happened here about four years ago. there were only six survivors. The pilot, his wife, and four kids. I think they all live here in town too.”

“That sounds tragic. How much further?”

“Only another five minutes or so.”

I started cleaning up my things in the seat next to me, preparing to get out of the car. If only dad had come too. But he was always busy in meetings anymore, he never seemed to have any time to be with me lately. He sent me ahead today because he had several meetings to attend this afternoon in the capital. He promised to be here by Wednesday, but I doubt that’ll happen. At least I had Gary.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I spent the weekend unpacking and organizing the new house. It was kind of fun to get to decide where all of the stuff goes. If I’d wanted to I could of made the movers put the table upstairs. It was fun to boss people around. Of course, Gary did most of the bossing since he was louder and bigger than I was.

The house had three bedrooms. I chose the master bedroom for myself because it had its own bathroom. Not to mention it had a balcony overlooking the backyard. If only there were something in the backyard to look at.

When I was outside helping direct the movers a little old lady two houses down waved at me so I waved back. Apparently, that was an invitation for her to come over and talk to me for 

three hours about the town history and the high school.

“Oh you’re just going to love it here. There’s so much you can do, and we have a whole bunch of classes you can take downtown after school. Speaking of school, did you  know that Sunny High is the home of the ninjas. You are in school, aren’t you honey? I just can’t think of a better mascot for a high school than the ninjas. Those other schools can keep their dogs and their athletes and we’ll beat them up with our fighting ninjas. You are Chinese, aren’t you honey? You would fit right in as the school mascot since most Asian folks know some type of martial arts. Although, now that I think about it, Leo would do well as the mascot too. He’s Chinese like you dear. He lives with the Jones family. He’s a Jones brother, I guess you could say.” She cracked up laughing at her clever joke. She laughed so hard that she was actually crying. She continued after she was finally able to breathe again. “Did you see that airplane on your way into town? The Jones family were on that airplane when it went down. Arnold Jones was the pilot, his wife, Angie, was the head stewardess, then you have the four boys they adopted because they became  orphans after that accident and the Jones’ felt so sad after that accident they just couldn’t resist helping out those boys in need. Oh it just breaks my heart to think about it. I hear all four of those boys are pretty big, and handsome now too. Maybe you’ll see them in school.” She winked at me “Although they are seniors now. Are you a senior honey?” She continued before I could respond “Their names are Mikey, Donnie, Leo, and Raph. Oh, but watch out for that Raph though, there’s some nasty rumors about him killing somebody and they say he beats people up all the time,” she patted my shoulder reassuringly. “I’m sure they’re just rumors though. I bet he’s a great boy.” She finally paused.

“I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for them-”

“Oh goodness, I haven’t even introduced myself. My name’s Anna. I live just two houses down, right there, with my friend Mary Jo. If you ever need anything feel free to come on over.” She gestured toward  her house and then began to walk towards it. “Speaking of which, I better be getting back. You just never know what Mary Jo will do when she’s left on her own. It was nice to meet you!” She proceeded to walk up her driveway and into the house yelling Mary Jo’s name as she did so.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard anyone talk so much without needing a response from the other person.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transfer papers in hand, I took a deep breath, and stepped into Sunny High, home of the ninjas. I found myself standing in the middle of the cafeteria. Now what? Where was the office? Wasn’t the office supposed to be right next to the door? That’s where it had been in all of the other schools. I wandered around the tables, dodging students waiting for the first bell to ring. When I finally broke out of the sea of students, I found myself standing in front of the  locker rooms. I looked to the left, sure enough there was the gym. In fact, there were two gyms. Maybe the school was bigger than I thought. I looked to my right and saw several more doors, but there were too many students in the way for me to figure out what they lead to. I was bobbing and weaving through the masses when the first bell rang and everyone scattered. Almost all of them headed to the stairs.

“Umpf,” I ran into someone and dropped my transfer papers on the floor. Looking over I noticed the girl I ran into was looking at her phone. No wonder we bumped into each other. Neither of us were paying any attention to where we were going. The girl was petite in every form of the word with curly light brown hair and hazel eyes.

“I am so sorry,” she cried, now looking up from her cell, “I was not paying any attention and I’m supposed to be looking for the office, but I was so engrossed-”“It’s fine,” I cut her off, smiling. In another minute I was going to be late to my first class on my first day at a new school. “I’m looking for the office too.”

“Do you know where it is?” We asked each other at the same time. We started giggling when we realized that we were both just as lost.

“Which one of you is Nancy and which one is Adelaide?” We both jumped, startled by the voice. The boy checked his watch. He was tall, with short brown hair, and he was clearly well built. I could see the muscles bulging in his arms. What did they feed the boys in this town?

“I’m Nancy,” I replied quickly, having realized I was staring. He handed me some papers with my name on them, then handed the other girl, that must be Adelaide, her own papers.

“Here you go. And welcome to Sunny high!” He called over his shoulder as he jogged away through the crowded cafeteria, away from us, our only hope in finding the office.

At that moment I happened to look up and notice something on the door beside us. The letter “ICE” with the distinct impression of an “OFF” in front of it. 

“Looks like we found the office.” I motioned to the door behind us.

“Or the ‘ICE’ as the sign says,” Adelaide wittily replied causing us to giggle again.

We entered the room attempting to quiet ourselves.

“You two must be Nancy and Adelaide” A nasally receptionist said.

“Yes,” we replied simultaneously. Our shared reply made us crack up yet again.

“I am so happy to see you two young ladies with such warm smiling faces on your first day at a new school,” the receptionist smiled warmly at us, obviously amused. “And your senior year, no less.”

“So it’s your first day here too?” We asked each other simultaneously, again. 

We burst into another  round of giggles. Were we really that nervous over our first day?

“I am so happy I’m not alone,” Adelaide confessed, taking deep breaths to calm herself. 

“Me too.” I replied, still smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Like the new girls? How 'bout those old ladies? :)
> 
> One more part to this chapter! YAY!
> 
> Also, we are officially done with 1st person POV!


	9. FIVE (Part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Let me know if you figure out who's narrating :)
> 
> ~There's a tiny bit of Spanish in this chapter, but it's translated in the story so no worries for those who don't know Spanish! (Me included...my cousin wrote the Spanish part)

  
  


The rumors about the two new girls being more than a little pretty, to put it nicely, were true. They sat in the small office in awkward silence, not really knowing what to say as they waited for their tour guide to show them around the school. The nasally receptionist pretended to work as she glanced up through her small, half-moon reading glasses. By this point, you might be wondering how old this lady was. Ancient was the only way to describe her age. It’s possible she lived with the dinosaurs, I tell you. The seconds ticked by on the clock, making the atmosphere all the more uneasy. Suddenly, the small flatscreen TV in a corner of the room turned to what the girls assumed to be a blank channel. They ignored it after several seconds of silence, believing it to be pointless.

“Madame Alice,” a tall blonde called out, skipping into the office. “I’m sorry I’m late, but at least I won my debate. To whom am I giving a tour?”

“Oh dearie, no worries. These,” the receptionist pointed with her hand, palm up, toward Nancy and Adelaide, “are the two new young ladies who need a tour around the school.” Ceci, the bubbly girl Alice always called dearie, turned on her heel to face her new fellow students. “Nancy,” the dinosaur pointed to Adelaide to introduce the girls, “and Adelaide,” she pointed to Nancy.

“Adelaide,” Ceci nodded to the correct girl in greeting, despite the failed introductions. “Nancy. I’m Ceci, please, follow me, and bring your schedules.”

The two girls followed Ceci into the now empty hall, amazed that she knew who was who.   


“Addy,” Adelaide started. Ceci lifted a quizzical brow. “I prefer Addy over Adelaide,” the short girl explained.

“Oh, Addy then,” the blonde chirped with a smile. Almost nothing ever caused Ceci to frown.

“So,” Nancy, the taller of the two new girls started. “Madame? Alice?”

“Ah, yes.” Ceci chuckled. “That is what she insists on being called. I couldn’t tell you why, but whatever keeps her happy, keeps the whole school happy. My friend calls her a dinosaur. I warn you now, never say that to her face.” Ceci said in the most serious tone I had ever heard. Nancy and Addy were shocked into silence by her sudden mood swing. “Schedules please,” Ceci ordered in the most friendly manner possible.

The girls quickly handed her their schedules without thinking twice, hoping she wasn’t bipolar.

“Interesting,” Ceci pondered as she looked over the two schedules. Nancy and Addy gave each other questioning looks, wondering what could be so ‘interesting’ about their schedules. It looked normal in their eyes. “You two have the exact same schedules. Wait here for a sec.” 

She ran back into the office, making sure their schedules were supposed to be the same. She returned to the hall with a sigh of relief.

“Okay, all is good. Now, let’s take the grand tour, shall we?” The new girls looked at one another, still confused, shrugged, and followed after the fast walking, long-legged, short-haired blonde who seemed to already be on the other side of the cafeteria. 

Ceci showed the girls where the cafe line started, how to get out to the courtyard where most of the students ate, and back into the building on the other side of the yard. 

“In order for you two to get in and out of the courtyard, you must use your lunch card. It serves as a key as well.”

“We don’t have a lunch card yet, do we?” The two girls asked each other simultaneously, shocking Ceci into silence. 

“Are you sure you two aren’t twins?” They nodded, confused yet again by her strange behavior and quick speech. Ceci shrugged and continued the tour.

She explained to the new girls that there are stairs on each side of the courtyard to go up to the second and third floors of the school, but only the cafe entrance had an elevator. She showed them the pool gym and explained where the main gym, weight room, and workshop classes were before heading to the second floor where the core classes were located.

Quickly, she showed them where the restrooms were located on their way up to the third floor where the more artistic classes are held, including art, choir, and band. As well as the library which took up an entire half of the third floor with a set of restrooms between the art classes and the library. They then looped around to go back down to the second floor, across the tunnel that connected to another building which held the rest of the extra curricular classes, foreign language classes, as well as the magnificent auditorium.

Ceci stopped for only a moment to drop them off at Mr. Haro’s 3rd year Spanish class. “Okay, well, this is your class. I should warn you Señor Haro isn’t one to put up with tardiness, so be on your toes. Bye!!” She skipped away, presumably back to her debate class.

Nancy and Addy looked at each other and took a deep breath before nudging the door open. The moment the latch clicked open Señor Haro yanked it the rest of the way and without a word gestured towards two empty seats in the middle of the room. The girls quickly made their way to their seats. 

“Clase tenemos dos nueva estudiantes.” He turned to the new girls. “Levantense y nos dicen sus nombres.” He looked at them expectantly. 

“Me llamo Natalia.” Nancy quickly stood.

“Me llamo Jazmin.” Only half a second behind, Addy stood as well.

Señor Haro looked them over nodding. “Jazmin, cuando puedes cortar el césped?” Addy gave him a strange look, wondering why he would ask when she mows the grass.

“Nunca. No tengo césped para cortar en el desierto.” Addy shrugged. The entire class erupted into laughter, including Señor Haro when she mentioned that she had no grass to cut in the desert.

“Natalia, si tu puedes ir a cualquier parte del mundo, a dónde irías?”

“Mmm, quiero ir a Sierra Leone, África, porque tengo una amiga viviendo allí.” Nancy replied quickly.

“Sientase.” Señor Haro said as he motioned for them to sit. They sat.

The rest of class went by fairly quickly since they were so late to start with. A bell rang and the girls started to gather their things. They realized no one else was and paused in their packing. Señor Haro turned on the TV in a corner of the room, muting the the sound as he did so. 

The morning announcements began to play. Spanish subtitles scrolled across the bottom of the screen as students on the TV showed the weather for the week as well as the major events happening around town. Suddenly, it cut to a live interview of another student. They recognized him as the boy that had picked up their transfer papers that morning.  _ No wonder he had been in such a hurry, _ they thought to themselves.

Another bell rang, this one louder than the last. Everyone in class immediately stood, gathered their things, and headed for the door. Addy was swept off with the crowd. Nancy had been forced into a corner by a burly guy with a giant backpack. 

Addy crossed through the glass tunnel hall and looked around, lost. Nancy quickly caught up to her and together they found their English class. 

**~~~~~~~~~~**

Four class periods later, it was finally lunchtime. The girls felt as if they could breathe again. There were no worries as to whom they would sit with since thankfully, they had each other. 

The two stood in the lunch line, about to pay for their food - since they had yet to receive their lunch cards- when someone stumbled forward into them, causing the girls to almost lose their lunch trays. When they looked back to ask why they were bumped into, the lanky kid who looked to be a freshman, shrugged his shoulders, looking a bit scared. The girls were confused once more by the strange behavior of the other students at the school  -it’s not like they looked all that intimidating.

Once they paid for their food and found a table by the window wall just outside the courtyard, they sighed in relief. The day was more than halfway over.

“So,” Addy started in a curious tone, “when did you move into town?”

“Oh, I just moved in Friday. What about you?”

“About a month ago, to be honest.”

“Oh.” Nancy decided not to pry into her reasons for not starting school sooner. “So did you notice that weird sign on the way into town?”

“No. Why?” Addy was thankful Nancy didn’t pry for more information.

“Oh my gosh, it was so stupid. It said something about the sun shining on smiling faces. We’re in the freaking desert. The sun is always shining.” She gestured out the window and they both turned to look. Nancy’s face going slightly pink as she realized it was overcast.

“I hope it doesn’t rain,” Addy teased.

Nancy was silent for a moment, staring at something over Addy’s shoulder. “Those must be the boys that Anna lady told me about.”

“Anna? This crazy old lady, Mary Jo, scared me half to death Friday night saying she lives with her friend, Anna.” Addy shrugged, thinking it was improbable the Anna person could be who Nancy was talking about.

“Yeah, Anna came up to me over the weekend and just started going on and on about how much I’ll love it here and stuff. She said I would look good as the school mascot because I’m Chinese, which I’m not, and the mascot is a ninja.” Nancy laughed. “Anyway, she told me about these brothers that go to school here. She said they were all built. I didn’t even know someone her age knew what that meant, “ Addy laughed, almost spitting out her food. “So she’s telling me about these brothers, including the fact that one of them may have killed a guy before and that he’s always beating people up. Then, she turned around and told me that she was sure the rumors weren’t true. Rumors have to start somewhere, though. I think she said his name was Ralph or Raph or something. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that’s them sitting right over there.” Nancy nodded out the window behind Addy.

Addy turned around in her seat to get a look at the boys Nancy had been talking about. At that exact moment, the girls, along with the rest of the student body, heard booming laughter coming from the largest of the five boys standing next to the table Nancy had pointed out. At the same time, the sun shone through the clouds, a ray of light reached down to the boys’ table, just like the sign at the edge of town said. Nancy sat there with her jaw on the floor. 

Addy, on the other hand, only had eyes for the boy in the red jacket with the booming laugh. She was entranced, unable to look away from his massive arms, broad shoulders, and curious eyes that peeked through his wavy, dark blonde, chin length hair. She was intrigued, to say the least. Then she remembered what Nancy had said about one of them possibly murdering somebody and constantly getting into fights. 

With wide eyes, she jumped up from her seat, grabbed Nancy’s arm, and bolted through the lunch crowd, not really knowing where she was going.

“What the heck was that about!?” Nancy asked, breathless, half of a bosco stick still in her hand.

“I’m sorry,” Addy apologized sheepishly, looking down at her feet, her quiet voice echoed down the stairwell. “I, uh. I was-”

“You were what?” Nancy impatiently asked as she shoved the last of her bosco stick in her mouth. Addy was impressed she could fit that much bread and cheese in there. With a deep breath, Addy decided to come out with it.

“Iwasabusedthelastfewyearsbymyfather,whoisalargemanliketheguyintheredjacket-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow. Down.”

“I was abused the last few years by my father,” Addy took a deep calming breath before continuing. “That guy in the courtyard, the really hot one wearing the red jacket. He’s about the same size as my father. Then I remembered what you said about one of them getting into fights and possibly murdering someone. So, I kinda freaked and ran,” she trailed off.

“Oh,” Nancy managed, unsure of how to respond.

“Yeah,” Addy replied. 

“Um,” Nancy checked her watch. “I guess we should go ahead to our next class.” Addy inwardly sighed, silently thanking Nancy for not prying into her personal life yet again.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Addy left school in a hurry. She did not want to accidentally bump into a certain someone. She had told Nancy goodbye and that she looked forward to another school day with her already, thinking that for their first day, it was nice to have a friend - a visible friend who didn’t live in a word game.

In her room, Addy saw a white envelope on her bed with her name handwritten on the front. Being the curious person she was, she opened it. 

The contents confused her. She glanced out of her window to see Nancy grabbing her own mail out of the mailbox next door. Before she knew exactly what she was going to say, Addy opened her window.

“Hey, Nanc!” She hollered.

Nancy dropped her mail in surprise. “Addy! You scared me! Wait! Do you actually live there!?”

“Yes?” She replied, sounding more like a question than an answer. “Oh. Yes. Yes, I do,” she giggled.

“I live right here! We’re neighbors!!” Nancy shouted with glee, before picking up the mail.

“No way! That explains,” she paused, held up a finger and disappeared, only to reappear on her front porch. “That explains the old ladies,” Addy whispered when she was close enough for Nancy to hear.

“You mean Anna?”

“And Mary Jo. Yes!”Both girls giggled.

Suddenly serious, Addy asked, “Did you get an envelope with your name on it and no return address?”

Nancy quickly looked through the mail, most of which was addressed to her father. “Yeah, here it is. Why?”

“Open it.”

“Okay...” Nancy opened the envelope after passing the rest of the mail to Addy to hold on to. 

**You are invited to** **749 Backwards Rd**

**@ 11 pm tonight**

**Password:**

**“my momma was wrong”**

The girls looked at each other expectantly. 

“I got one too” Addy whispered.

“Wanna go?” Nancy asked.

“I guess,” she figured she had nowhere else to be, anyway.


	10. SIX: Cecilia & Brooke

Ceci, short for Cecilia, was the girl who knew everyone and everything. She was the person everyone knew and loved. She was friendly, smart, and beautiful. Yes, I realize they say beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but she was one of those people everyone thought was beautiful, ya know what I mean? The long legs, cute hair, perfect skin - I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let me start over.

Ceci, short for Cecilia, was the girl who knew everyone and everything. She was the person everyone knew and loved.

She was friendly, smart, and beautiful. She was Sunny High’s president of the class of 2017, four years in a row. She was also on track to be valedictorian. Needless to say, she was one to be jealous of. In everyone’s eyes but her own.

She alone, knew of her nightmares. She alone, knew why she never stopped to appreciate the small things. And she alone, knew exactly why her twin sister had basically become a hermit.

If you saw Ceci’s hair in it's natural reddish brown color, instead of blonde, and let it grow out a few inches, the sisters would look identical. Of course, Brooke would have had to change her sense of fashion to match Ceci’s, but if they had ever wanted to trade places at school the teachers wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Brooke, the older of the two sisters by mere minutes, hid her beauty away behind books. She was the girl no one noticed. Well, almost no one. Anyway, I’m fairly certain that she enjoyed her anonymity most of the time, which was good since it was self inflicted. She always sat in the back of the classroom, with her nose in a book. It didn’t take the teachers long before they gave up trying to hold her attention. It didn’t seem to matter anyway since she was always passing her tests and quizzes with flying colors.

Brooke was the exact opposite of her sister, or so it seemed. But she hadn’t always been the hermit she seemed to be now. Once upon a time, she had been the outgoing one while Ceci had been more quiet and reserved, although not quite a hermit. It was that fateful summer before high school that had changed them both, and only Brooke and Ceci accepted, without question, the transformation of the other. Now Brooke paid close attention to the little things in life and avoided the big picture while Ceci refused to stop for a moment to appreciate the small things. In their own way, both of the sisters were coping with what happened that summer.

~~~~~~~~~~

“And that’s time! Great job Ceci, Sean. Go on back to your seats.” the debate teacher, Mr. Russell, said, as he stood up behind his desk.

“Uhm,” a skinny boy cleared his throat from the now open classroom door.

“Yes?” Mr. Russell inquired in an annoyed tone. He did not like his classes being disrupted. In his opinion, it ruined the flow of the debate, not to mention the timing.

“Sorry, sir,” the boy swallowed. “I have a note here for Ceci.” Instead of giving the note to the teacher, or to Ceci who was still standing in front of the class, he stood there as if his feet were glued to the tiled floor.

“Well,” Mr. Russell motioned toward Ceci. “Are you going to give it to her or just stand there like a lost puppy.”

“Oh, uh, yes.”

“Thank you, Jack” Ceci smiled at the boy before her as he turned to leave. 

“And close the door behind you.”

“Of course, sorry sir.”

Ceci read the note on her way to her seat. She froze halfway sitting down and slowly stood back up raising her hand. “Mr. Russell?” she called quietly to the man now writing on the whiteboard.

“What is it?” He asked without turning.

“I’m wanted in the guidance counselor's office.” 

“Then go already.” Mr. Russell snapped, waving a hand to the door. “It’s not as if something like this doesn’t come up every other day. If you get called somewhere I don’t even wanna know about it. Just go.” This time he pointed to the door. As soon as she closed it behind her he sighed and scratched at the bald spot on the center of his head before taking a deep calming breath and addressing the class.

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Madame Alice,” Ceci called out, skipping into the office. “I’m sorry I’m late, but at least I won my debate. To whom am I giving a tour?”

“Oh dearie, no worries. These,” the  dinosaur  receptionist pointed with her hand, palm up, toward two bored and nervous new girls, “are the two new young ladies who need a tour around the school.” Ceci turned on her heel to face her new fellow students. “Nancy,” Madame Alice pointed to Adelaide to introduce the girls, “and Adelaide,” she pointed to Nancy.

“Adelaide,” Ceci nodded to the correct girl in greeting, despite the failed introductions. “Nancy. I’m Ceci, please, follow me, and bring your schedules.”

“Addy,” Ceci lifted a quizzical brow toward the smaller girl. “I prefer Addy over Adelaide.”

“Oh, Addy then,” Ceci chirped with a smile. Not nearly as confused.

“So,” Nancy, the Asian girl stated. “Madame? Alice?”

“Ah, yes.” Ceci laughed. “That is what she insists on being called. I couldn’t tell you why, but whatever keeps her happy, keeps the whole school happy. My friend calls her a dinosaur. I warn you now, never say that to her face.” Ceci said in the most serious tone. Nancy and Addy were shocked into silence by her sudden mood swing. “Schedules please,” Ceci ordered sweetly. The girls handed them over.

“Interesting,” Ceci thought aloud. As she looked over the two schedules, she noticed they had the same exact classes. As in hour for hour. She stated as such, “You two have the exact same schedules. Wait here for a sec.” 

“Madame Alice?” She asked as she stuck her head in the office door. 

“Yes, dearie?”

“I noticed Adelaide and Nancy have the same schedules. Were they supposed to have the same classes for the same periods?” 

“Oh, yes dearie. I thought it was strange myself.”

“Thanks!” Ceci quickly left, just like always, and found the new girls right where she left them. “Okay, all is good. Now, let’s take the grand tour, shall we?” She clapped her hands together and they were off.

“Since you have the same schedules I’ll walk you to each of your classes in order then we’ll circle back around to your first period class. Yeah, that’ll work.” Nancy and Addy nodded unsure of what other response they could have given since Ceci was the one in charge at the moment.

“Okay, so you have Spanish 3 with Señor Haro first. That’s in the next building over on the second floor. You can either go around outside to the front of the auditorium and go in those doors or you can go upstairs in this building and walk through the tunnel. The tunnel is faster from here so we’ll go that way. Follow me.” Ceci called back, practically skipping across the cafeteria to the stairs. Nancy and Addy struggled to keep up. 

Up the stairs past the science classes, a left past the math classes, down the hall past the history classes, and another left past the english classes to reach the tunnel. The tunnel wasn’t really a tunnel. More like an arched tube lined with windows covered in grimy handprints. 

As they exited the Tunnel Ceci announced “These bathrooms are the cleanest in the entire school. Make sure you use them while you’re over here. Trust me.” Ceci pointed them out as they walked past. “The class at the far end of the hall in the left corner is Señor Haro’s third year spanish class. We’re not going to walk any closer because he knows you’re coming today and he has the ears of a bat. Let’s go back. Oh! I almost forgot. The only other class on this floor, besides the foreign language classes, is law enforcement. I thought I’d let you know in case you decide to take it next semester.” As they walked back across the tunnel Ceci started talking again. “ You guys are lucky your next class is so close. Just a quick trip through the tunnel. Of course it’ll be packed with people between classes, so watch your step.” Ceci pointed to the first class back on the other side of the tunnel. “This will be your english class. Mrs. Antcliff is a lot of fun. You guys will love her. Then let’s see, you have trigonometry with Mr. Geibel. That’s back over here.” Ceci quickly moved down the hall with her long strides, she left the two smaller girls jogging to catch up. “I never had him, but I heard he makes math seem fun. This is his class here.” She pointed to another class on the left.

“What’s on the other side of this wall of lockers?” Nancy asked, curious as to why all of the classes were only on one side of the hallway.

“Oh, just wait. It’s really cool. You’ll see.” Ceci then proceeded to move on to the next class. “This is your chemistry class. Ms. Kinsella is the sweetest teacher in the entire school. You’ll really like her. And now,’ Ceci checked the schedules again. “You have ceramics upstairs with Mr. Ponsford.” She took off for the stairwell and started up them without looking back and continued “If you’re really artistic you’ll like him because he is a very laid back teacher, basically gives you the reins. Of course he loves to teach you new skills too, if you ask. But if you were hoping for a structured step by step class this one will be very difficult for you.” By now she had reached the top of the stairs and gone down the hall and was standing in front of the art room. Addy and Nancy stood puffing behind her. Ceci turned back to her charges and grinned.

“If you’ll follow me right this way I’ll answer your earlier question and show you the library.” Grin still in place, Ceci led the girls into the library on their left. She pushed the double doors open wide and stepped aside so they could see into the room. The looks on their faces weren’t quite as awed as she had hoped but they still seemed intrigued. Ceci smiled at the girls again. “Here let me show you the reason for the odd shape of the school.” She led them around several rows of bookshelves before turning a corner to reveal a glass floor looking down on the school courtyard. A glance at Addy and Nancy’s faces showed that this time they were indeed awed. Ceci let them check it out for a minute before finally pulling their attention back to the task at hand. 

“Shall we continue the tour?” She paused waiting for them to look away from the floor. “The computer lab is in the far corner over there,” Ceci gestured, “and if my sister Brooke is around- she usually is- you can get her to check out books for you when you can’t find the librarian.” Without pausing Ceci headed back out the door and around to the stairs. “So after ceramics you have lunch which is just down these stairs.” She pushes open the door to the stairwell and heads down. “After lunch you have gym with me and my sister.” At that moment she reached the bottom of the stairs and heads out across the cafeteria. “So next to the office is the workshop, auto, wood, all that stuff and next to that is the locker rooms. There's a door in the back of those that lead to the gym. The first gym that is. You have to walk across the length of that gym to get to the second gym which is where the pool is under the floor and where we usually have the school dances.” Ceci checked her watch and abruptly turned back the way they came from; towards the stairwell. “The other set of doors over here lead out into the courtyard and it’s also a shortcut to get to this other stairwell.” Ceci pulled out a card and the door unlocked as she walked quickly across the courtyard. “There's another walkway on the second floor so that you don't have to go all the way around to get to the stairs like we did earlier. I just thought you might like to see all of the classrooms.” She pulled out her card again and when the door unlocked ushered Addy and Nancy into the stairwell and up the stairs. “So your last class is study hall. You got lucky getting that last period. Anyway it’s in the auditorium on the first floor. You’ll get to use the auditorium and the dressing room to be able to spread out.” “Ceci lead them out of the stairwell on the second floor and across the tunnel and back down another stairwell. “The big class there in the front corner is the television broadcasting class and next to it is human anatomy and physiology. On the corner is home economics and this one right in front of the stairs is the dressing room. We’re running behind. I’ve gotta get you back to first period before it’s over. Come on.” Ceci turned them around and guided them back up the stairs to the second floor. Ceci whispered, “Okay, well, this is your class. I should warn you Señor Haro isn’t one to put up with tardiness, so be on your toes.” Ceci waved them towards their class as she herself headed back through the tunnel towards hers.

**~~~~~~~~~~~**

The teacher, Mrs. Antcliff, was late again. Not that anyone was complaining. Brooke was fine reading one the best classics of all time: North & South, by Elizabeth Gaskell. Which just so happens to be the book the class was supposed to be writing their next essay on. While most of the other students were upset by this, Brooke, clearly, was not.

Now, Mrs. Antcliff, by far, was the epitome of ‘Mrs. Claus’. She had the rosy cheeks, the constant smile, sweet voice. Plus, I always imagined her as this plump, short woman. Anyway, Mrs. Antcliff was always late for class, no matter if it was first period or fourth period or last period. Actually, she was probably only ever on time for lunch. Not that anyone ever blamed the lady.

“Okay class,” Mrs. Antcliff cheerily called as she swept into the room, arms full of papers, binders, pens, and whatever else an aspiring author might carry around which is- what I assume- every English teacher in the world. Granted, the binders belonged to the students. She probably did some grading over the weekend. Along with baking some cookies, I’m sure. 

Brooke was having trouble concentrating because Paula, a classmate who sat close by, and her friend were whispering too loudly. Eventually, Brooke gave up on reading the page and started listening in. Usually, Paula and her friend Ramiro, had some interesting gossip anyway.

“No way!” Ramiro exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yes way. Jessica’s friend Johnny’s little brother just went to see him yesterday,” Paula replied. Brooke leaned in to hear better, pretending to read.

“But wait, you’re saying that THE Spider, THE Tank’s protégé, is in a coma? I don’t believe it.”

Behind Ramiro, Brooke coughed in an attempt to cover up her snort from the unrealistic rumor. Paula and Ramiro both turned around to see the auburn haired reader with her nose in a book.

“Anyway, you know what he’s done in the past. I’m not surprised Spider is in a coma,” Paula continued the ridiculous rumor. “I AM surprised Raph didn’t kill the guy. You know how mean he can get. And his temper - O.M.G.”

“True…” he trailed off. Once again, Brooke snorted, a bit louder, unable to cover it up with a fake cough this time.

“Do you have a problem, bookworm?” Paula glared at Brooke, causing her to shift uncomfortably in her seat, ignoring the death glare, she went back to reading. Or at least, tried.

“Uh-hm,” someone cleared their throat and without meaning to, Brooke glanced up.

“She asked you a question.”

“What?”

“Paula asked you a question,” he repeated.

Enter Leo, quietly walking into the classroom, without Mrs. Antcliff knowing as she was still organizing her things. He glanced over in Brookes direction, like usual, checking to see that nobody was bothering his little brother’s  (unofficial) girl. He quickly switched directions so Brooke wouldn’t see him cross the front of the classroom. Moments later he was standing behind Brooke with his arms crossed, pushing his swoop bang aside to reveal both eyes, effectively staring down at the two who seemed to be bothering Brooke. 

“Forget it, Ramiro,” Paula said while she nervously glanced behind Brooke. “She probably doesn’t know how to talk, anyway.” The two turned around, sulking. Leo silently moved to his seat next to Brooke, gave her a quick nod, and tuned in to Brittney’s conversation to catch up on the latest gossip.

Meanwhile, Brooke barely noticed Leo enough to return his nod due to her anticipation for third period, auto mechanics. Not that she would ever tell Mikey that. She was still flabbergasted Mikey even wanted her to take the class with him and even more so when he ditched his favorite brother to be her partner; Brooke, who didn’t know anything about cars whatsoever.

The bell rang before she knew it. She hadn’t even heard the announcements because she had been completely absorbed in her book. A book she finished at that exact moment. Brooke sighed contentedly, snapping the book shut. Clutching it to her chest, she wound her way through the crowded doorway, up the stairs, and around to the library. 

Mrs. Fee stopped her as she walked into the room. “Hey Brooke, that Sarah Dessen book you wanted was just returned.”

“Did it really!? Here. I’ve finished North & South, I’ll trade you.”

“You just checked that out yesterday.” Mrs. Fee laughed as she checked out the new book to Brooke. 

“Well of course. It’s not that long of a book.” Brooke smiled as she gingerly set North & South on the return counter, smoothing the cover as she did so. Mrs. Fee handed her the soft green bound Sarah Dessen book for Brooke to inspect like she always did. Instantly, Brooke thumbed through the pages leaning in to take a deep breath. She sighed and began to inspect the pages more closely for stains, tears, and folded corners. Satisfied that the book was well worn, but in good condition she tucked it into her arms, holding it tightly against her chest. “I’ve got to get going or I’m going to be late for German class and Ceci will be upset with me. Thanks for the book. Let me know if any of the medieval fairy tale books by Melanie Dickerson arrive.”

“Don’t worry B, you’ll be the first to know when that order comes in.” Mrs. Fee called after her as she made her way out of the library and towards the stairs.

**~~~~~~~~~**

She was searching the entire school for her handsome best friend. By entire, I mean she even checked his muddy green Jeep Wrangler to see if he was skipping out for a quick nap. A bad habit she was constantly telling him he needed to break. She said it wasn’t good for his grades. Not that it mattered much, since he had a 3.7 g.p.a. and was currently making A’s in all of his classes, not to brag or anything.

It was around lunchtime when Ceci began plotting out several hundred different ways to kill him because he was nowhere to be found. Finally, she heard him talking across the cafeteria, making his way toward the lunch line. She made a bee-line for Splinter, practically stomping her way over when suddenly, Brittney snatched her by the arm, pulling her down to eye level since she was sitting at a table with her friends.

“Look Ceci, me and the girls aren’t gonna be able to help out with decorating for the homecoming dance. We have some other,” Brittney paused as she gave the other girls at her table a conspiratorial look, “urgent business to attend to.” They nodded as Ceci looked them over, confirming what was said. Ceci figured they were lying, but smiled anyway. She always had a back-up plan and she didn’t like their negative attitudes anyway.

“Okay. I’ll find somebody else to help me. No big deal. Thanks for letting me know ahead of time.”

“No problem,” Brittney smirked, finally releasing the death grip she had on Ceci’s arm. Ceci stood and glanced at the lunch line. She sighed in frustration. Splinter was once again, nowhere in sight. Without wasting another moment she resigned herself to searching the cafeteria, table by table.

Sooner than expected, she noticed the famous red hoodie Raph always wore, and where Raph was, Splinter was sure to be nearby. She headed out to the courtyard. The slight breeze felt good on her flushed face due to searching for Splinter the past couple of class periods.

“Why do milking stools only have three legs?” She heard Mikey start one of his infamous jokes. “Because the cow’s got the udder!” To her surprise, she started giggling.

“Jonesy!” She called out, assuming none of the brothers would laugh, per usual. Boy, was she wrong.

Her eyes bugged out in shock when she saw Leo spew milk everywhere. Then Raph dropped his tray he was laughing so loud, causing the courtyard and even inside the cafeteria to look their way. Mikey then got up, grabbed his tray on his way to Raph, who he smacked on the back of the head,  effectively  wiping the strange look off his face. 

“Jonesy!” She called out again, hoping he would hear her now that everyone was done laughing, but the usual cafeteria noise drowned her out.

Furious, she marched to Splinter, grabbed him by his ear, and pulled him out of his seat.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…” Ceci ignored him as she continued to drag him to an empty table on the other side of the courtyard.

“Sit,” she demanded, roughly pushing him into a chair. He rubbed his ear, brows drawn, and bottom lip pushed out in a pout.

“What was that for?” He whined.

“For not answering when I yelled your name the first two times. Now, we need to discuss the stats for tonight’s big fight.” Ceci whipped out her famous clipboard, clicking her pen, ready for whatever she was about to write next. “We still need several more decent fighters to make the night worthwhile for the fans. Did your brothers agree to join?”

Splinter nodded. Before he could say anything, Ceci was checking off their names. “Good. Then I just need to confirm it with Bulldozer and Frank and we’ll be set. I think this is going to be the best main event night thus far,” she clicked her pen, hooked it back to her clipboard, and shoved it all back in her backpack, zipping it as she stood to leave.

“So I have this idea,” Splinter started, making Ceci pause. “Maybe we could up the entertainment for Raph’s entrance by setting off red smoke bombs. Oh, and my bros had some stipulations before competing. Mostly, they want some free pizza before the fight. Leo doesn’t want to fight a girl. Donnie gets to bo fight. What d’ya think?”

She pursed her lips in concentration. “That could work out. And good idea Jonesy. Be sure Donnie makes more for himself and the rest of your brothers. We can’t have any favoritism now, can we?” She waggled her eyebrows and turned to strut off. “They are they’re own main events as well, ya know. Now I just have to find someone to bo fight with Don.” She called over her shoulder as she strode through the door. “Oh, and don’t forget to send the invites! They’re in your locker!” 

“How’d you get in my locker!?” Splinter yelled after her. “Stalker,” he mumbled to himself when she didn’t reply. 

~~~~~~~

Ah. Gym class. The only time a guy gets a free pass to check out the girls unashamedly. Although, I’m not so sure that boys vs girls dodgeball was very fair. But I suppose that’s what happens when you put a science teacher in charge of the boys gym class when the girls gym teacher is on maternity leave. Don’t get me wrong, we all love having Mr. Larson in charge. There’s not anyone who would complain about his lack of discipline when it came to how much effort we put into our physical tasks. Dodgeball though, what person can say they have good memories of playing dodgeball?

Mr. Larson blew the whistle to begin the match. Us boys being as competitive as we are, retrieved most of the balls and all hell broke loose. Girls were cringing and screaming, boys were grunting and laughing, balls flying everywhere. Smacking the walls, the floor, legs, arms, and more than a few faces. I’m not entirely sure who the idiot was that kept aiming for faces, but whatever. 

Brooke, one of the first ones out and- if I’m not mistaken- moved in front of a ball on purpose. She was now sitting on the bleachers writing furiously in her notebook, ignoring the calls from her teammates to join back in the game any time they caught a ball. Addy would always come back into the game in her place.  She seemed to get out a lot, then would check her phone, click some buttons, and smile every time as she got back in the game. Nancy was dodging like a ninja until Leo started aiming for her. Suddenly, she couldn’t seem to get out of the way fast enough. Curious, considering Leo was being pretty gentle with his throws. The strangest part of the match though, was that Raph kept getting out. Raph had always been a top pick in physical activities. His team never lost, yet today he couldn’t seem to dodge more than a couple of the balls before getting out. What’s even more confusing is that he kept checking his phone with his brows pulled together in concentration. At least I kept catching enough balls to get him back in the game, not that he seemed to appreciate it overly much. 

As for Donnie, he hung towards the back calculating and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Ceci seemed to be the only girl with any skill. She was the only one getting the boys out with any consistency, excluding Raph. He doesn’t count today. Mikey was - oh! he was the one hitting the girls in the face. Mikey had incredible aim. If only he wasn’t too busy staring at Brooke on the bleachers, maybe he wouldn’t be disqualified at this point for hitting so many people in the face. Although, I think the true reason behind his disqualification was because he hit his own teammate in the back of the head. 

By the end of the class, half of the girls were injured or crying and the boys were winding down from the adrenaline rush, finally starting to feel bad about the whole thing. I don’t think Mr. Larson is going to attempt this game again any time soon, at least not co-ed. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Those legs. Those long, lovely legs with her short, plaid, catholic school-girl skirt. It could make a guy go crazy. Along with the tight, white button up that she always tied in a knot below her- Anyway, she usually only had a couple of buttons buttoned where it counts. Like it really mattered, my brothers and I would kill any guy who even looked at Ceci wrong. Thankfully, everyone in the area knew who Raph was and the friendship they had. If they didn’t, they learned really quick just how close we all were. To top it all off, were her boots. Not the cowgirl kinda boots. The sexy, black, tall, hooker kind of boots. And because of her sexy fight night attire, her strict parents, and due to the late hour of the night, Ceci was sneaking out.

Boots in hand, the concrete basement floor felt cool through her thin socks as she tiptoed past Brooke’s closed door out to the garage and into her yellow VW Bug. Which I always thought fit her personality all too well.

What Ceci didn’t realize was that Brooke wasn’t in her room. She was waiting in the shadows of her Jetta for the perfect moment to confront Ceci about her late-night shenanigans. At the last second she decided to follow Ceci instead so as not to give her the chance to lie her way out of the situation.

As they zoomed passed the houses towards the outskirts of town, which normally took about fifteen minutes, Brooke was starting to worry. Normally, or so Brooke thought, her sister only drove to school, the Jones’ house, and home. At the exact time Brooke was about to call her sister, Ceci pulled into an old warehouse parking lot, causing Brooke to wonder if her sister was selling drugs or something. Then, she thought better of it. She knew her sister well enough to know she stayed far away from any sort of self-harming narcotics, considering how _he_ died. 

The thud of her sister closing her car door shook Brooke out of her reverie, causing her to take action.

“Ceci!” she called out. 

“Brooke?” Ceci twirled on her heel.

“What are you doing!?”

“Nothing,” was the too quick reply. Brooke squinted at her sister, making her squirm.

“And what are you wearing? Normally you’re all about keeping yourself covered. You’re not here to see a guy are you?”

“What!” Ceci’s eyes went wide. “No, I’m here to help out some friends.”

“Friends? Like this?” Brooke judgmentally looked her sister up and down, checking out her outfit. Secretly, she thought Ceci looked pretty sexy. And if Ceci looked good in that outfit, Brooke knew she would too. 

“Relax, I’m perfectly safe. No need to get your knickers in a knot.”

“My what?”

“Sorry, I’ve just always wanted to say that. It sounds a lot better with the accent, believe me.”

“Oh...kay,” Brooke drawled, confused.

“Just,” Ceci grabbed her hand and started pulling Brooke toward the door. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

“I don’t think-”  _ Mikey? _ She thought, when the first thing she saw upon entering was a shirtless, pizza dripping, way more beefed up version of Mikey in a pair of orange Hawaiian flowered trunks and a pair of sneakers and tube socks, making him look all the more ridiculous. Not that Brooke had ever thought that, that’s just my thoughts on his choice of fighting attire, but he never did have much taste in fashion.

“Guys!”

“Yo! Dudette! You made it!” Mikey shouted out for all of his brothers to hear. They instantly dropped their weapons and fists to come say hello to the girls. Mikey, being the closest at a hightop table by the entrance, was the first to reach Ceci and bring her in for a sweaty hug. “And Brooke? I didn’t know you were coming to see me fight.” He smiled. Ceci rolled her eyes while Brooke stared, dumbfounded.

“Uh,” she stood there speechless, desperately trying not to stare at his six pack abdomen, thick biceps, and beefy chest. She decided to focus on his caramel colored eyes. They always helped ground her when her heart uncontrollably fluttered around him.

“Come on, let’s grab some pizza,” Ceci interrupted, dragging her sister before Brooke could say another word, knowing full well that she was uncomfortable. They called it ‘twintuition’.

Once the two made it to the pizza bar Brooke mumbled a quick thanks to Ceci as she stole glances behind herself to watch Mikey; who was now back to eating his pizza.

“Miss Anna!” Ceci greeted the short, silver-haired, elderly lady who was manning the bar.

“Oh Ceci! How lovely to see you,” Anna smiled, always happy to see the bubbly Ceci. “I expect we’re gonna have a lively turnout, am I right?”

“I believe so. I arranged for the best fighters to be in town for tonight’s big show.”

“Good to hear it,” the lady nodded. “Now, what’ll it be for you two lovely ladies?”

“Just a couple of waters for us, but as for Mikey, I’m paying for whatever he eats tonight.”

“Well, he’s been racking up his bill, like usual. Are you sure you want to pay for his food? You know as well as I do that he could eat an entire farm in one sitting.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ceci nodded, fully prepared to lose her allowance for the month.

“Actually, Miss Anna,” Brooke whispered. Thankfully the woman had good ears considering the DJ just started his sound check.

“Yes?” Anna looked at Brooke expectantly. Ceci smiled inwardly.

“I’ll pay for Mikey’s food for the night.”


	11. SEVEN

Addy and Nancy looked around in awe. Never had they ever seen so many people in a warehouse, or for that matter a warehouse that looked like this. A pizza and bar just inside the door, a giant stage with blaring music in the back right corner, and huge crowds to their left. 

“Are you hungry at all?” Nancy yells over the blaring music, pointing to the pizza bar just in case she wasn’t heard. 

“Not really.” Addy shook her head. Nancy shrugged and headed towards the stage. After only a few steps Addy tugged on her arm and leaned in, “Let’s check that out later! I don’t really want to dance right now!”

Nodding, Nancy led the way around to the left of the stage.

“I’m so glad you guys made it!!” Ceci appeared out of nowhere in a very revealing outfit. “You’re going to love it! Head that way,” Ceci pointed towards a large crowd in the middle of the left side of the building, “for the main event! I’ve gotta get going! I’ll see you around!” And she was gone, seeming to be swallowed by the crowd, expertly moving through everyone, clearly familiar with the crush of people. In fact, if you watched from above as everyone around her moved out of the way, you might just think she owned the place. 

Continuing to the middle back of the building the girls found themselves beside several mats pushed together. On the mats were two heavily padded men with bo staffs. 

Thunk. Thunk. Whack. Whoosh. Crack! The one in purple landed a hard blow to the arm of the one in green. CRACK! And another blow, this time to the leg. The man in green fell to his side but almost faster than the eye could see, he rolled and was on his feet again just as a staff hit the mat he’d been laying on. 

“Isn’t that one of the brothers?” Nancy asked Addy. Addy shrugged, her eyes glued to the fighters. There’s nothing quite as elegant as watching bo staff fighting. 

“Yeah, that’s Donnie.” A quiet voice said behind them. The girls turned to find Brooke watching over their shoulders.

“Ceci, what happened to your hair? I swear it was shorter and blonder a moment ago,” Adelaide asked, confused.

Brooke giggled, covering her mouth. “I’m Brooke. Ceci’s sister.”

“Twins?” Nancy questioned.

“Yeah.” She blushed. “Donnie’s the oldest of the brothers by a couple of weeks.” She nodded her head towards the mats where Donnie now had his opponent on the floor, staff pointing at his chest. “That’s the match.” Brooke started to move away, melting back into the crowd.

“Well they have one thing in common besides their looks. They both know how to make an exit.” Nancy chuckled. “Come on, let’s see what else is going on.”

Keeping a firm grip on each other as they squeezed their way through the crowds they noticed a couple of guys wrestling. It seemed odd to them that there wasn’t much of a crowd surrounding this match. A hulk in red shorts was attempting to take down someone with a slightly smaller build in dark blue shorts but he couldn’t quite lock the double leg and as he backed up to try again the one in blue went in for a single leg managing to unbalance the bigger one. There was a booming smack as he landed on his back. Moments later the one in blue was helping his opponent up.

“Let’s skip this one Nanc.” Addy requested, a slight tremor in her voice. Nancy took one last look and realized that they were two more of the brothers. One of them being the one Addy had been so scared of during their first lunch . 

“Of course. Let’s check out what’s going on over there.” Nancy pointed to another corner of the warehouse where a crowd of people were chanting and screaming, and tugged Addy in that direction.

“Are those throwing stars?” Addy asked, as a guy in orange hawaiian shorts turned to face the crowd. He covered his eyes with his left hand and spun around throwing the object with his right. Fast as light, the star struck the target at the other end of the range and held true. It was barely off center. The screaming began again. 

“That’s Mikey!” Ceci screamed in their ears to be heard. “You’ll never find anyone with better aim than him! It doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s a range weapon, he will hit the target!”

“Mi-key! Mi-key! Mi-key!” The crowd chanted as Mikey took a seat on the throwing line and borrowed a glass from someone and threw the shuriken while taking a drink from the cup. Dead center. The cheers erupted, and Mikey stood grinning. After a few more trick shots, Adelaide and Nancy were ready to move on. 

“Hey you!” A loud voice called after them. The crowd closed in and wouldn’t let them leave. The girls turned around. Mikey loped towards them, a huge grin on his face. “We go to school together don’t we?” 

“Yeah,” Nancy responded, confused as to why he had singled them out.

“Perfect! Come help me with this trick!” He grabbed Addy’s wrist tugging her towards the throwing range. Addy froze. The look in her eyes galvanized Nancy into action. She grabbed Mikey’s arm, broke his grip on Addy, then twisted his arm up behind his back. Hard. 

“Don’t touch her.” Nancy shoved him away.

Mikey held his hands up in surrender, looking a little shaken up himself. “My bad. I didn’t mean anything by it.” Addy rubbed her wrist, not noticing the apology. Everyone was watching them. 

In order to get the attention off of Addy, Nancy asked, “So what did you need help with? What’s the trick?”

Mikey grinned, grabbing the lifeline he’d been thrown, “Oh, you’ll see. I promise you won’t get hurt.”

Nancy hesitantly followed him to the range. Mikey pointed at the target. “Go stand in front of the target. Oh, and take this with you.” He tossed her the now empty glass he had used a few minutes ago. She walked to the wall of targets and placed herself directly in front of one. “Take a couple steps back this way!” Mikey called to her. She did as she was told. “Okay, now brace your feet and balance the glass on your head. Perfect. Now close your eyes.” Slowly, Nancy closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. 

_ Shing! _

The tinkle of glass hitting the floor behind Nancy made her flinch. She opened her eyes and the cheering began again. Before she knew what was happening, Mikey was by her side, kneeling down. “I’m so sorry! I’m so, so sorry!” 

“Ohmygosh! Nanc! Are you okay!?” Addy screamed over the crowd, worried something major happened by how Mikey was reacting. 

Nancy looked down at Mikey, ignoring Addy for now, confused as he gingerly grabbed her shin to get a good look at her calf. Gently pulling away, she inspected it herself. It was nothing but a tiny scratch. She had cut herself worse while shaving. 

Nancy cracked up laughing. Doubling over holding her stomach, “I’m fine!” She attempted to sooth them both through her gasping and tears of laughter.

“And Nightmare is your winner!” Mikey and the girls turned towards the cheering, barely able to see Ceci’s blonde hair over the fist pumps from the crowd around the octagon. “You’ll see him soon for the finale!”

“Yeah! Go Dude!” Mikey shouted, joining in on the fist pumping, which caused the girls to jump back a step.

“Who’s Nightmare?” Nancy asked, noticing Addy’s wide, frightened eyes.

“Only the best fighter in the area, probably the best his age anywhere,” Mikey shrugged, motioning for the girls to follow him into the cheering crowd.

“Next up!” Ceci spoke into the mic as a couple of boys wiped down the mat for the next contestants. “The Taiwanese Zombie versus The Vixen!” 

“What’s so funny?” Nancy asked Mikey, whose shoulders were shaking with mirth.

“You’ll see,” he smiled down at her. “Come on, let’s see if we can get a front row seat.” He pushed his way through the crowd, Nancy and Addy trailing behind him.

Inside the octagon Ceci was whispering frantically at a fuming Leo. 

“I really didn’t think she would make it this far,” she rushed. “I know you didn’t want to fight a girl. Her stats weren’t that great. I seriously didn’t think she was gonna get to the finals in your weight class.” Leo continued glaring at her. The same thing happened last year. With the same excuse. Why Ceci allowed women to fight with men was beyond him.

“Vixen! Are you ready?” Ceci backed into the center of the cage, announcing the fight. Vixen nodded with a grunt. “Taiwanese Zombie! Are you ready?” Leo didn’t answer. She took that as a yes.

Ceci was barely out of the cage when Vixen pounced on Leo, slamming her elbow into his jaw before he had the chance to put his guard up. Backing away, Leo took a deep breath to try and prepare himself for what he had to do. He feigned a right hook and went in with his left. She dodged both and retaliated with a leg kick to his side. Leo allowed the kick to land as he tried to think of any way he could get out of this fight. The Vixen went in for another combo but he blocked it. In the blink of an eye Leo was down on one knee pushing in for a single leg. She landed hard on her back, which made Leo realize he wasn’t even going to be able to wrestle her without feeling guilty. His hesitation gave her the opening she needed to claim control. Of course, Leo wasn’t to be held down by a woman. That would look bad, but he couldn’t shake her off. Inch by inch she worked her legs into a body triangle. Leo straining his arms to pull her legs from around his middle. The girl was like a monkey. She threw two cross hooks, the jarring impacts of which made him untuck his chin so that she managed to get an arm under it. Grabbing her bicep with the hand she just got under his chin, she closed her arm so she wouldn’t lose her grip and squeezed. After only holding the rear naked choke for a couple of seconds Leo tapped out. The Vixen released him as Ceci moved into the cage once again. 

“Your winner! Vicky! The unstoppable Vixen!”

Leo quickly left the octagon, throwing Ceci a look that promised to kill, and ducked into the changing room before anyone could tease him for losing to a girl. Again. 

Nancy watched him leave the cage, thinking back to when she first saw him wrestling a bigger guy. He was good. Much better than what that girl threw at him. She found it odd he lost as she saw him slam a door shut a few people down from her, Addy, and Mikey.

Mikey was covering his mouth as tears ran down his face. His entire body shaking with laughter. “So Leo refuses to fight girls. He thinks they’re too soft and he’s afraid he’ll hurt them. He just gives up. Don’t get me wrong or anything he doesn’t mind girls fighting but he just doesn’t want to be the one fighting them.” Mikey wiped away his tears as his laughter subsided.

“And for the moment you’ve all been waiting for!” The crowd roared, drowning out the music across the building. All eyes turned to the cage. “The grand finale! The unstoppable Frankenstein versus-”

“Night-mare! Night-mare! Night-mare!” the crowd chanted, cutting Ceci off. Behind the crowd, Raph stood in front of the door to the makeshift locker room Leo had entered moments before. His eyes were closed as he breathed in deep, calming breaths, relaxing his body. Nobody noticed him as they watched his opponent enter the cage. Splinter and Ceci were both entertaining the crowd as Donnie prepared to light the red smoke bombs he made for Raph’s big entrance. 

Raph took one last breath before he opened his eyes, taking a step forward through the rowdy crowd right when the first of the smoke bombs went off underneath him, making him stumble forward a few steps, almost falling on top of a girl more than a foot shorter than him. He found himself holding onto her slim shoulders for dear life. He was sure he was crushing her against the cage wall, unable to find his balance. He looked down to see a frightened curly-haired girl. The same one he had seen at lunch earlier that day. 

He couldn’t believe it. She was there. Next to him. Well, he was practically crushing her and it didn’t help when someone was shoved into his back, causing him to fall forward. Her eyes shut in fear and before he knew it, before he could react, his lips were on hers. Surprising them both. It was at that moment Mikey finally decided to intervene. He forcefully pulled Raph off of Addy, giving him a stern look, and continued to shove his shocked brother into the cage.

Raph stumbled not-so-gracefully into the cage, still in shock, ecstatic that she was here, and probably because he ‘accidentally’ kissed her. At least, that’s the story he stuck with.

Ceci and Splinter stood in the middle of the octagon with shocked expressions. Some girls in the crowd began to cry, thinking Raph had just received a good luck kiss from his girlfriend. Others glared at Addy, whose face was as red as a christmas poinsettia. 

“Nightmare! Are you ready?” Ceci shouted, getting Raph’s head back in fight mode. Raph gulped, now nervous for the first time, but nodded, going back to his disciplined self. Trying desperately not to think of the curly headed girl with the most intriguing hazel eyes. He shook his head imperceptibly, he needed to win this fight more than any other. Fighting was the only thing he thought he was good at and he wanted to show her. He wanted to show-off, which was very unlike him.

Frankie practically leapt forward with the first move, attempting to hit Raph in the nose. Raph shuffled to the side, easily dodging the overzealous superman punch, all the while never losing eye contact. Frankie tried a few jabs before Raph started teasing him. With his palms open, Raph tapped Frankie’s fists a few times. Frankie pulled back before catching Raph with an inside leg kick. Raph reciprocated with a feigned punch, causing Frankie to flinch and defend himself when it wasn’t necessary, effectively giving Raph the perfect moment to sweep his legs out from under him.. 

With Frankie now on the ground, Raph dove in, jabbing Frankie in the face a few times before letting him stand back up. Raph moved to the opposite side of the cage, glancing out at the crowd as he did so.

Frankie took the bait. He stood up with a quiet groan and blood on his lip. With a deep breath he sprinted forward, hoping to ram Raph into the cage, trapping him. Considering his size you would think that was easy. Raph stayed in place until the last second, causing Frankie to bounce off of the fencing.

“Come on, Frankie!” Raph taunted, knowing Frankenstein hated that nickname thanks to Ceci’s briefing. Frankie calmly got back into his fighting stance: chin tucked, both fists up by his chin, and ready to punch the lights out of Raph. With both arms relaxed, down at his sides, Raph delivered a hard front kick into Frankie’s stomach, forcing him to double over momentarily, giving Raph the advantage he needed to throw a left hook into the side of his temple. Frankie staggered back and to the right.

“That’s time!” Ceci shouted into her mic. “Two minute break, gentlemen!” Frankenstein was helped into his corner by a scrawny guy with greasy hair that had more metal in his face than skin. Since Raph had barely been touched, he walked over to his corner where Mikey had been watching, drinking the water Splinter handed him while he discreetly searched for a certain someone, completely ignoring whatever Splinter was coaching him about.

During the first round of the fight, Addy had somehow followed Raph not only with her eyes, but with her feet as well. So while Nancy and Mikey were right under Raph’s nose, she was still on the side where Frankie had crashed into the fence, staring in awe at Raph’s rippling shirtless back.

Upon arriving in his corner and not finding the girl he accidentally kissed next to Mikey and the Asian girl - where she had originally been- he freaked out. On the inside, Raph was as calm as a raging storm, terrified that he had scared off the girl from earlier that he had crushed against the cage. Outwardly, he was desperately trying to stay relaxed for the next round of the fight. He locked eyes with Mikey, the pleading question in his eyes.  _ Where was that girl _ . Mikey clearly saw the panic and worry in his brother’s eyes. As much as he was enjoying the show, Mikey realized that if he left Raph’s questioning look unanswered he may very well lose the fight from lack of focus. He nodded his head in Addy’s direction. Halfway through the nod Raph spun himself around to find her. His shoulders noticeably relaxed when his eyes locked on her form.

Adelaide caught herself staring open-mouthed when Raph spotted her, making her cheeks turn crimson. She immediately snapped her mouth shut and looked away, finally noticing that Nancy wasn’t next to her but on the other side of the cage, waving to get her attention. She waved back, avoiding eye contact with Nightmare, signalling she was on her way back over. Raph carefully watched her weave her way back through the crowd to the Asian girl and Mikey, not noticing the bell rang, starting the next round of the fight. Mikey signalled to the girls that he was leaving for his own fight giving Raph a thumbs up before he left.

With Raph distracted, Frankenstein had the advantage. He quietly moved forward and sent a front kick into Raph’s back, pushing Raph into the fence in surprise. Gasping and fueled by embarrassment, Raph swarmed on him. He jabbed Frankie in a quick combination, hitting him anywhere he left himself open, forcing him to close up his stance, chin tucked, hands protecting the face, elbows protecting the waist, unable to see much of anything past his own fists. Then Raph grazed him with a jab to the temple, pushing his head backwards, which caused Frankie to flail his arms out as he tried to keep his balance but instead, opened his chest to Raph. Immediately, Raph swung his leg up and forward. Hard. Kicking his target with a perfect push-kick, forcing all of the air out of Frankie’s lungs as he flew backwards, landing with a loud _ thud  _ on his back.

The crowd was shocked into silence. Seconds ticked by. The only thing heard in the immediate vicinity was Raph’s heavy breathing and Frankie’s conerman as he climbed into the cage. Finally, Frankie groaned as he tried to sit up. He gave up after a couple of tries and allowed metal-face to support him when, like the good sport he was, he gave a thumbs up to signify he was okay.

The crowd cheered ‘Night-mare’, drowning out Ceci, who was declaring Raph the winner as she raised his beefy arm in the air while Frankie’s metal-faced helper dragged him out of the way. To Nancy’s surprise, Addy was cheering Nightmare’s name as well, fist-pumping the air like the rest of them and louder than she could have ever imagined someone so small to yell.

“Food?” Nancy yelled close to Addy’s ear, catching her attention. Addy raised an eyebrow in confusion as she yelled back.

“What?” She asked as somebody accidentally bumped her from behind. She automatically grabbed onto the edge of the cage where the fence met the mat. Nancy held up her pointer finger before grabbing her phone out of her pocket to type in her question. Addy grabbed for her phone as well, only to realize it wasn’t in her pocket as she was bumped once more from behind, by the excited crowd trying to get closer to their champion.

After a few precarious seconds where Nancy almost lost her phone, she held it up for Addy to read:  **food?**

Addy nodded enthusiastically, not realizing until now how hungry she was. They held onto each other as they slowly made their way toward the pizza bar.

**~~~~~~~~~~**

Ceci was starving as she stepped out of the cage, allowing Raph to give a show to the crowd after his epic win. To those who knew him, this was unusual. Typically, Raph didn’t care to give much of a show after a win, he would do it anyway for some hype if Ceci or Splinter asked him to, but this was different and Ceci was not waiting around for him to finish so they could go eat like they had planned. Something she, Splinter, and Raph always did to celebrate. Instead, she wound through the crowd in search of Brooke, to see if she had eaten yet. Thankfully, she hadn’t. 

Once they found their way through the major hub-bub of the crowd, they spotted Addy and Nancy, who had received their pizza moments before.

“Care if we join you?” Ceci asked. Brooke sat down at the high-top table with an exasperated sigh before either one could reply. Staying up late wasn’t unusual for her, but the crowd, the noise, and all the excitement were wearing her out. She had no idea how Ceci did this all the time.

“Sure,” Addy replied as Nancy shoved a piece of stuffed crust cheese pizza into her mouth. Cheese was her favorite. Ceci watched her with a raised brow and immediately thought of how well her and Mikey would get along.

“Thanks,” she looked over at Brooke with a small smile. “I’m going to get Brooke and I some pizza. Be right back.”

“Tired?” Addy looked at Brooke with sympathy.

“Yeah, I’m not big on crowds.”

“I understand. I’m not much of a fan either,” she smiled.

“So, what did you think of the fight?” Nancy asked both girls, her voice muffled by the large amount of bread and cheese in her mouth.

“Which one?” Brooke asked with a tired smile, remembering Mikey’s win with the nunchucks moments before. 

Addy giggled when she realized the ridiculousness of Nancy’s question.

“The pizza has arrived!” Ceci shouted enthusiastically, interrupting the conversation.

“How many fights were there?” Addy asked as Ceci sat down between her and Brooke.

“There were the two competitions of MMA fighting,” Ceci answered for Brooke. “A bo fight, nunchaku match, shuriken throwing contest, sai throwing contest, and sai fight.” Ceci rattled off, “Here, we only have three weight classes for the MMA fights: lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight. And since this is far from professional, the weight classes differ from what you would see in the professional world, but we do our best. The rest of the contests are by request so we don’t have those every week.”

“How come we only saw the one with the girl and guy, and the Nightmare one?” Nancy asked, her mouth free of food for the moment. “We noticed the bo staff when we came in and Mikey throwing shurikens, but those seemed like they were just for fun.”

“We have a wide range of fans here. Some wanted to see the bo fight, others wanted to see the nunchaku, but most wanted to see the middleweight and heavyweight fights. So the bo, sai, shuriken, and nunchaku fights were during those competitions. Poor Leo was running back and forth with all of his different competitions, it’s no wonder he lost his final middleweight bout. Anyway, all of the contests were close by so the fans could look back and forth between whichever they wanted to watch.” Ceci took a big chunk out of her supreme pizza after explaining. The rest of the girls nodded, letting it all sink in.

“And who were the sai fighters? I didn’t see that at all when we came in,” Addy inquired, intrigued, instead of scared for once, by the various fighting.

“That guy over there,” Ceci pointed with her pizza to the middle of the dining area at four fairly bulky guys, one more so than the other three, who all looked to be having an animated discussion. Both Addy and Nancy turned around in their stools to look at who Ceci was pointing to.

“Which one are you pointing to exactly?” Nancy asked.

“The one in red,” Brooke answered in her sister’s stead so she didn’t have to talk with her mouth full. “Raph.”

“Raph,” Addy mumbled quietly as she recognized the bigger one to be Nightmare. “But he fought in the heavyweight competition, right?” Ceci nodded in reply as Brooke continued the explanation. Both Addy and Nancy turned back around to hear better.

“He fought in the sai contest before you guys got here.”

“Is he any good?” Nancy asked, wondering if he was as good at sais as he was at MMA.

“Good?” Ceci countered. “He’s the best. He won the sai competition as well as the heavyweight, which you saw. Not that anyone here thought he was going to lose.”

“So not only is he scary big, but also a talented fighter. Great.” Addy mumbled, turning in time to see several girls surrounding him. All of whom he gave a flirtatious smile as he allowed them to hang all over him. “And apparently a flirt. Ugh.”

“When in the world did Mikey get that black eye?” Ceci questioned aloud. Nancy and Brooke looked at the boys, each with a slice of pizza in hand.

“During warm up,” Brooke giggled, remembering when she startled him before his nunchaku match to wish him luck. She was happy to see him remove his arm out of the scantily dressed girl’s grip that was standing between him and Raph. The girl gave him a pout, but moved on to  Donnie, which made Ceci unknowingly scrunch her face up in consternation until he stepped out to leave the group, uncomfortable with all of the attention they were getting. Once again, the girl pouted before moving on to the next brother, Leo, who continued to stand stoically, completely ignoring the girl as  he distractedly helped Mikey administer to his black eye while thinking of ways to get back at Ceci for having to fight Vicky earlier. The girl quickly gave up on getting Leo’s attention, moving on to the last brother of the group, Raph, who already looked to be enjoying the attention of four other girls. This particular girl did not seem to notice as she stood directly in front of him with her hands sprawled on his now shirt covered chest, standing on her tiptoes, and gave him a peck on the lips.

Addy was the first to look away as she mumbled something about Raph kissing whatever girl he sees, disgusted by his lack of  self-restraint .

~~~~~~~~~~

Raph was boiling. It was taking all of his willpower not to throw all five girls surrounding him across The Underground. Especially the half-naked one who felt it necessary to kiss him. But he knew if he threw any one of them, Ceci would have a fit. And he did not want to be on her bad side. Yet, when he saw the curly-haired girl turn away in annoyance he thought it  _ might  _ have been worth it.

“Ladies. Ladies,” Splinter joined the group in time to keep Raph from exploding as he all too happily pried their hands off him. “Let’s give the champion some space, shall we?” The girls finally strutted off, swaying their hips in one last attempt to catch Raph’s attention as Splinter ushered them away from his brothers. “Come on,” Splinter motioned for his brothers to follow. “Let’s grab some pizza while the place dies down before Ceci makes us clean up.”

Leo and Raph strategically placed themselves at a hightop table close to Ceci and Brooke so they could ogle the other two girls sitting with them as they waited for their pizza. Donnie and Mikey noticed what the two had done and sat with them without saying a word. It took every ounce of concentration for Mikey not to laugh as he saw both of his brothers faces fall in disappointment when Addy and Nancy left the building. He quickly composed himself when he saw Brooke leave a few minutes after them along with the two elderly ladies who, in his opinion, made the best pizza ever.

Not one second was wasted once the building emptied. Ceci instantly rounded the guys up to clean The Underground. Which was no small feat. With her handy-dandy clipboard and pen, she took charge. She was going to clean the kitchen. Splinter was to clean the bar. Mikey was in charge of cleaning all of the tables and taking out the trash since she figured most of the pizza boxes were probably his anyway. Donnie was in charge of wiping down and sanitizing all of the mats. Leo was in charge of cleaning the dance floor and locker room. Raph was to sweep and mop the floor. With one last click of her pen, they were off to their respective duties.

By the end of the night Leo had found three used condoms in the locker room, Splinter locked away ten ID’s that were probably fake, in the register; Mikey ate the rest of a half-eaten slice of pizza, and Raph found a phone with music notes drawn all over it near where the shuriken throwing contest was. Without thinking, he stuck it in his pocket, hoping the owner would call it. It wasn’t until later when he got home that he noticed the phone was dead and plugged it in to charge. 

All dead beat tired souls found their way to a vehicle. 

“I call shotgun,” Mikey called as he stumbled over to Ceci’s tiny VW Bug.

“And I’m riding with them,” Leo stated. “There is no way I survived fighting a girl just to end up wrapped around a tree due to Splinter’s bad driving.” Mikey slid the passenger seat forward, allowing Leo to squeeze into the backseat.

“Guess I’m stuck with babysitting these two,” Donnie muttered on his way to Splinter’s jeep.

The drive to the Jones’ home didn’t take very long, having no traffic to deal with at 2 a.m. Ceci was not looking forward to the extra twenty minute drive back to her house. She yawned just thinking about her soft pillow-top bed.

“Dudette, you look exhausted. Why don’t you stay with us tonight? You can sleep in my room.” Mikey smiled proudly, his thumb pointing at his chest.

“Um, no thank you,” she replied.

“You can sleep in my bed. I’ll take the couch. Nobody would survive one night in Mikey’s room anyway.” Leo offered as they all stepped out of the car.

“What’s wrong with my room?”

“Nothing if you want to contract a horribly fatal disease from all of the molding trash in there.” Leo replied with a straight face. Ceci couldn’t stop her giggles from escaping.

“No offense Mikey, but I think I’m going to sleep in Leo’s bed for the night. It’s probably for the best that I sleep over, considering my parents could wake up and see me in this.” She motioned to her sexy fight night attire.

“I don’t see anything wrong with your clothes, Ceci.” Splinter winked as he laid an arm around her waist, escorting her into the game room. Ceci just rolled her eyes at him, knowing full well how much he enjoyed seeing midriff, legs, and cleavage.

Donnie lagged behind the crew, not really appreciating Splinter having his arm around Ceci, knowing full-well they were good friends. Nor did he like that she would be sleeping in Leo’s bed. He shrugged it off, knowing it could have been worse, she could have ended up sleeping in Mikey’s room. Nobody wanted her to die tonight.

“Mates,” Raph whispered-yelled, not really whispering at all, but he tried. “Shush, mum’s asleep.” Everyone cracked up laughing, slapping hands over their own mouths and each other's to stifle the noise. Raph gave them each a bewildered look, not realizing he was the loudest of them all. Yet, he was the one shushing them. Several deep breaths and another fit of snickering on the cramped stairway later, they were all calm enough to tiptoe through the doorway to the main floor.

“So nice of you boys to finally make it home.” The boys froze, recognizing dad’s voice.

Leo stepped around the corner into dad’s line of sight. “Duìbùqǐ, Arnold.” Leo bowed as dad closed the refrigerator, a cup of milk in his hand.

“Care to explain where you boys have been all night?” Leo could feel his brothers move around the corner and stand behind him. The tension was palpable. Donnie shuffled in front of Ceci, trying to hide her and her skimpy outfit from dad, who would certainly not approve. 

Dad’s eyes snapped over to Donnie. Then his eyes went wide. “Ceci?” Dad asked in shock. “What are you wearing? Forget that- Someone get her some real clothes!”

“Going.” Leo made a dash for the stairs, anything to get him away from a confrontation with dad. Ceci close on his heels.


	12. EIGHT

Dad glared at the boys. Noticing for the first time the bruise on Mikey’s eye as well as everyone’s bruised and swollen knuckles. “Did I raise a gang?! Look at you! You’re all covered in bruises! Who were you out bullying this late at night! It looks like we’re going to need tighter security around here. Does your mother know about this?! What do you think she’s going to say when she sees all of these bruises in the morning?! You are all grounded! Hand over the keys! No one is leaving this house except for school! Keys! Now!”

Splinter reluctantly handed over the keys to his jeep.

“Get upstairs and get cleaned up! If your mother finds out about this you will all regret the worry it will cause her. Now, march!” He pointed up the stairs and they quickly and quietly made their way up. “And no experiments, no reading, and no video games!” Dad shouted after them. Splinter flinched. At this rate dad was going to wake ma up himself.

Ceci and Leo sat in silence listening to dad yell downstairs. The soft thudding of footsteps alerted them to the end of his tirade. They waited several more minutes clutching their bed clothes as they waited for dad to go to his room. They heard the door click and jumped into action. Ceci stepped into the hall pulling the door closed behind her so that Leo could change and soft knock to let her know he was done. 

“I forgot how scary he can be when he’s mad.” Ceci whispered as she re-entered the room. She wasn’t even phased by Leo’s shirtless appearance.

“He has been gone for a while.” Leo amended.

“True.” Ceci stood and contemplated how tired she was versus the possibility of being involved in another one of Mr. Jones’ rants. Leo coughed.

“I’ll just go down to the basement now.”

“Oh! Sorry. I guess I should move out from in front of the door then.”

“Sleep well Ceci.” With that he disappeared in the dark hall. 

“I guess I’m sleeping here.” Ceci said to herself as she closed the door again. 

~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning the alarm went off at the same time as always. Splinter got up, rubbing his eyes. Blearily he walked down the hall and retrieved a towel from the hall closet and turned to go in the bathroom. He walked in and closed the door. He opened the door and walked back out. Something wasn’t right. A door down the hall swung open.

“Morning, Jonesy” Ceci chirped as she walked by the zombified Splinter, wearing only his boxers. She quietly shut the bathroom door behind her, leaving a very confused Splinter standing in the hall. 

“Hey!” He called out when he heard the click of the door being locked. “I was about to take a shower.”

“Were you? I didn’t notice, considering you were standing in the hall, all dazed and confused.” Splinter scratched the back of his head, still trying to figure out what exactly was missing. He snapped his fingers, finally realizing the usual stink bomb hadn’t been set off this morning. He chuckled quietly, looking down at the floor. Only then did he realize Ceci had just seen him in his underwear.

“Aaaaaahhhhhh!” He squealed, running back to his room, slamming the door behind him.

“Buggah, mate,” Raph groggily sat up, his voice a bit gravelly from sleep. “It’s too early fah you to be screaming like a little birdie.” With that said, he rolled over, now facing the wall, covered his head with his pillow, and started snoring. Since it was the morning after a long fight night, he was enjoying his sleep as he forego-ed his usual workout routine.

“Ceci’s here,” Splinter whispered conspiratorially as he shook Raph back awake.

“Yeah? And?”

“She saw me in my boxers.”

“Which ones?” Raph asked with his eyes still closed.

“Wha’?” Splinter looked down, thankful they were his Spider-Man boxers instead of his Disney Princess pair that his brothers bought him last year for Christmas.

“Well, not the first time and coulda been worse.”

“Not the first time!” Splinter yelled. “When has she seen me in boxers before!?”

“All the othah times she’s stayed ovah, mate,” Raph sighed, done with the conversation. He picked up his phone, noticing it was almost dead since the phone he found was still on his charger. He tapped on the word game app, clicked on the game him and Addybug had been playing and took his turn. Bimbo was the word he used. If he was more awake he would’ve laughed at the word, thinking it silly. 

Not even a second later, the lost phone buzzed loudly on his nightstand. He picked it up, noticed it was fully charged and that a notification popped up stating Wurst_Nitemare took his turn. He quickly shot up in his bed, wide awake now and flabbergasted that Addybug was the owner of the phone.

Ceci, now showered and ready for her school day, stepped out of the bathroom, calling out to Splinter that the bathroom was all his as she headed down the stairs to the main floor.

“Morning, Angie,” Ceci called into the kitchen where ma was cooking breakfast. 

“Oh!” Angie jumped in surprise. “Good morning, Ceci, how nice to see you. I had no idea you were here, so you surprised me.”

“Sorry, came with the guys last night. Need any help with breakfast?”

“Who was screaming?” Leo trudged into the kitchen from the gameroom down in the basement, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

“Jonesy was,” Ceci answered as she took over the cooking, knowing full well Angie wasn’t the best cook in the house. Angie left to get ready, thankful Ceci took over.

“Thank him for me,” Leo replied. “I forgot to set an alarm.”

“Thank him yourself,” Ceci smirked. “He should be in the bathroom upstairs by now.”

“Nah, I can wait,” Leo shook his head as he sat down on a stool next to the island. “Breakfast smells good and I want some before Mikey and Raph get to it.” Ceci giggled in response, understanding completely.

~~~~~~~~~~

The drive to school was awkward in Ceci’s car. Leo sat in the passenger seat with Donnie in the back. It was unusually quiet to her. Normally, Splinter was chatting her ear off. She decided now would be a good time to ease the tension.

“So, you guys are helping me decorate for homecoming, yeah?” The boys looked at her, confused. 

“Sure,” They answered simultaneously. Ceci noticed Donnie glaring at Leo in her mirror. The silence was back immediately. 

“Don’t forget to tell the rest of the guys. We’ll all meet at lunch to discuss what needs to be done.” The boys nodded in affirmation. Ceci then turned the radio on, unable to handle the silence any longer.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay spill! What was up with you last night? One second you refused to move and looked almost panicked and the next it was like you couldn’t get close enough to the fight. Are you scared of knives or something?” Nancy asked Addy, already wide awake and ready for the day.

“I admit it. I’m scared of sharp objects,” Addy replied sarcastically as the two girls walked into the school. “The fight was intriguing though,” she said in all seriousness.

“Are you sure it was the fight and not the fight _ er _ ? He was pretty hot. The one from that first fight was hotter though. Taiwanese Zombie, I think they called him.”

“Maybe,” Addy giggled. “Yes, Raph was gorgeous and the Zombie guy was cute too. But, honestly, I was more intrigued with  _ how  _ he fought. It was beautiful. If fighting can be called beautiful,” she shrugged.

“I don’t see why not. Maybe I’m biased since he’s from taiwan like me. Either way I call dibs.”

“All yours, girl. As long as I get the big guy,” she said dreamily. The girls started giggling when they suddenly bumped into something solid.

“What big guy are you talking about?” The solid thing asked. The girls looked up blushing into the face of the guy that had been fighting with the bo staff last night.

“Addy! Nancy! I was hoping to catch you guys. I need some help,” Ceci interrupted before the girls were forced to come up with an answer for the guy they had bumped into. “I need some women to help decorate for homecoming. We’re having a meeting at lunch to discuss exactly what needs to be done. Give me your numbers and I’ll text you where we’ll be sitting.”

“Sure,” Addy nodded. “You’ll have to text Nancy though. I lost my phone at The Underground last night.”

“We live next door to each other too, so it’ll work even after school.” Nancy added jotting down her number on Ceci’s hand.

“Okay, that works for me! I’ll see you at lunch!” Ceci flitted away, Donnie on her heels, hoping to beat her to class so he could put the water bottle in place without her noticing.

“Good fight last night,” Addy inconspicuously elbowed Nancy. “That girl was brutal.” 

Leo shrugged, turning back to the girls from watching Donnie trailing after Ceci. “I don’t fight girls.”

“What’s wrong with fighting a girl? If she knows how to fight and she isn’t afraid of fighting someone bigger than her, why should you stop her. I thought it looked like you weren’t trying last night.” Nancy huffed, hands on her hips.

“I don’t think he meant it like that,” Addy cut in. “I think it was quite chivalrous. Plus, if you did beat her, then you would have been judged for beating up a girl. I think it’s nice you chose to lose. Although, I could see close friends making fun of you for losing to a girl,” She shrugged. “The situation was really a lose-lose for you.”

Leo shrugged, embarrassed but impressed with the girl’s ability to figure out his reasoning.

“I still think that since she got in the cage she was asking for it.” Nancy mumbled, arms crossed.

“Come on, we’re gonna be late for class,” Addy grabbed Nancy by the wrist, dragging her away to their lockers. “Not the best first impression, Nanc.”

“I couldn’t help it. If I could, I would get in the cage and wouldn’t want to win just because a guy doesn’t wanna hit a girl. It’s stupid. A girl knows what she’s getting into when she goes in, there’s no need to go easy on her.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but maybe he was taught differently,” Addy argued.

“Yeah, taught how to be a wimp.” The two girls laughed, heading toward their first period class, Spanish.

~~~~~~~~~~

**Courtyard. U cant miss the big guy in red.**

**KK.**

Ceci was right. It was impossible to miss Raph’s hulking figure outside. The girls nervously walked over to his table and sat down with their trays, not looking at him.

“Uh,” Raph stared in wonder at the two new girls sitting down at his table. Nobody was ever brave enough to sit with him. “Wha’ are you doin’?” He asked, not intentionally being rude. The girls looked up at him, slightly fearful that they got the wrong table.

“Um, Ceci said to meet her here,” Nancy responded. “for the meeting.” Addy was shocked to hear his Australian accent. The only other time she had heard him was when he shouted at his opponent the night before, but she hadn’t noticed the accent then.

“She did?” Both girls nodded in reply. “Wha’ meetin’?”

“About homecoming,” Donnie answered as he sat down at the table, noticing the girls looked a bit worried. They each visibly relaxed as Raph stood up to get his own lunch. 

“Thank you,” Addy whispered in relief.

“You’re welcome?” Donnie replied, confused.

“Okay this is going to drive me nuts. What’s your name?” Nancy asked. “I can’t just keep calling you the bo fighter guy that helped us on our first day.” 

Donnie laughed “My name’s Donnie. The Australian is Raph. This is Leo.” He motioned as Leo sat down at the table. Leo nodded towards Addy in greeting. “And the goofy one headed over right now is Mikey. Watch out for his jokes. They’re the worst.”

“Whose jokes are the worst? I have the best jokes and I just heard another one today!” Mikey said with a grin as he sat his tray down. “Since we have guests today I’ll forgo waiting on Raph to tell you all. Ah-hem. A man went to a costume party carrying a woman on his back. The host asked him what he was supposed to be and the man replied ‘I’m a turtle.’ The host was confused. ‘You’re not a turtle without a shell.’ The man smiled. ‘This is Michelle’.” Mikey cracked up at his own joke. To everyone’s surprise, Nancy laughed as well.

Leo was in love. Her laugh mesmerized him and she obviously liked to fight, considering how upset she had gotten over his comment earlier. This girl was absolutely perfect.

Nancy wiped her eyes, noticing all of the shocked stares in her direction. “What? it was funny. By the way, I’m Nancy and this is Addy. Forgot to mention that before.” Nancy wiped away a few lingering tears.

“Wha’s so funny?” Raph asked, sitting back down at the table with his tray in hand. “Couldn’ have been one of Mikey’s jokes.”

“Actually,” Mikey grinned proudly. “Nancy here, loved my joke. Wanna hear it?”

“No!” Raph boomed, noticing his brothers all shaking their heads. Addy and Nancy both jumped in surprise by his sudden outburst.

“Don’t mind him chicas,” Splinter showed up to see who the pretty ladies were, loudly smacking Raph on the shoulder. “He’s harmless, I swear.”

“Oh good!” Ceci appeared out of nowhere. “You’re all here! Perfect! Oh, just a sec,” she held up her pointer finger as she stepped back away from the table to answer her phone. Splinter followed behind her when she waved for him to come with her.

“So, I heard there’s suppose tah be some meetin’ goin’ on?” Raph queried, trying not to stare at Addy, who was purposely avoiding him.

“Yep. Basically Ceci wanted to tell us that Addy, Nancy, Brooke, and herself will be in charge of design and layout while we,” Donnie motioned to all of the boys. “Are in charge of putting everything in place, especially anything heavy like the strobe lights.”

Nancy rolled her eyes. “I’d be more than happy to help carry some of the big stuff. I’m no wimp.” She teased looking towards Leo.

Leo laughed. “Fine you take care of the lights and tables while I hang up the streamers.”

“So when are we decorating again?” Addy asked quietly.

“Friday morning Ceci will get us all passes to skip class and we’ll spend the day decorating. If we finish early, you girls can leave school and spend more time getting ready.” Donnie winked at them.

“Am I so ugly that I need the extra time to get ready?” Nancy asked, barely hiding her smile. Addy covered her mouth and faked a cough to keep herself from laughing.

“Definitely not.” Leo replied looking directly at Nancy. He had answered before he even knew what was happening. The awkward tension in the air melted away as Addy tried to cover another laugh with a cough, this time unsuccessfully. 

“Dudette,” Mikey said with concern in his voice. “You okay?” Addy nodded, not trusting her voice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Find Raph for another meeting**

**KK**

“Maybe Ceci will actually show up to the meeting for more than a second this time,” Nancy laughed as she and Addy sat back down at the usual table. Raph, once again, silently watched the girls with keen eyes as they sat down. It was only day two of this, they weren’t sure they were ever going to get used to it and figured ignoring him was the best solution at the moment. They sat as far away as possible from Raph since Addy was still on the fence about him. Nancy would always sit on the side closest to him while Addy took the edge. Addy silently appreciated her friend for being a buffer.

Raph, on the other hand, couldn’t for the life of him figure out why Addy continued to hide herself from him. When the group was chatting away she would always join in on the conversation until he spoke up.

“Dudettes,” Mikey greeted, along with a nod from Leo and a quick ‘hello’ from Donnie as they all sat down. And just like yesterday, Raph got up to get his lunch without a word.

Gangas 1, 2, and 3 followed Raph back to the lunch table. Carla, ganga 1, had an arm slipped in the crook of his elbow while Carrie, ganga 2, was on his other side holding on to him the same as Carla. As for Charlotte, ganga 3 as the only one he could remotely stand, followed closely behind. When they all reached the table, the gangas sat themselves down without invitation. Always assuming they were welcome anywhere, especially if Raph was involved.

“Raph,” Carla started. “How come you’ve never asked us to sit with you? I mean, you’ve never sat with any other girls before.”

“Yeah,” Carrie seconded. “What makes these girls so special?” Addy fumed in silence because Nancy had a grip on her arm under the table, signalling for her to ignore them. 

“Nice fight Monday night at The Underground, by the way, Raph.” Charlotte congratulated in an attempt to ease the tension. Raph only grunted in reply. Out of the three, she was the only one who noticed they weren’t welcome at the table.

“Oh yeah. That was a great fight. You looked good without your shirt on. Why don’t you go shirtless during gym class? None of us girls would mind.” Carla batted her eyes at him. He completely ignored her, trying to keep his cool as he took a bite out of his pizza. 

“And your arms looked even bigger during the fight. Did you beef up a bit, Raph?” Carrie squeezed his bicep, thinking he enjoyed their attention. In their eyes, every guy at school wanted their attention, especially Raph.

“Dudettes,” Mikey called to them. “Wanna hear a joke I just heard the other day?”

“No thanks, Mikey,” Carla sneered without looking at him. “Your jokes are  _ so  _ stupid.” She stood up and walked away from the table, rolling her eyes. She wasn’t going to chance hearing even one of his jokes. The other two gangas followed suit, their cheerleading uniforms swishing as they went. Charlotte gave everyone at the table a tight smile in apology before she left.

“Stupid gangas,” Raph slammed his fist on the table. Leo, Donnie, and Mikey were all chuckling at the name he called the head cheerleader and her posse. Addy and Nancy gave each other a questioning look.

“Gangas?” Addy asked before she could stop herself, looking directly at Raph. He stared right back into her curious eyes, consumed with the fact she was speaking to him.

“Yeah dudette. It’s what he calls those three,” Mikey answered after he noticed Raph wasn’t going to.

“What does it mean?” She asked Mikey, avoiding Raph once more.

“It’s Straylian fah bimbo, basically,” Raph cut in before Mikey could answer, still staring at Addy. She snapped her head in the direction of his voice. Her lips curved upwards into a bright smile, secretly doing a happy dance in her head. She was beyond delighted to hear Raph actually hated those girls. Her smile was reciprocated when Raph beamed back at her. He loved her smile. He wished he could be the reason behind her smile more often. It made him feel like he was on cloud nine. 

“Good. Everybody’s here,” Brooke observed. Mikey quickly scooted over to allow her room so she could sit next to him. She gratefully sat down. “Ceci said she’s not going to make it today, but to let you all know to meet here again tomorrow.” Everyone nodded in acknowledgment. “Oh, and she wanted me ask Addy if she found her phone. And if you had, to give you her number so you could text her. That way she would have your number. And I believe she wants all the guys to give you their numbers as well.”

“No,” Addy frowned. “Still haven’t found it. Even if someone else did find it, I have a lock on it so they can’t even call anybody. Plus, I don’t have my ICE contacts set up yet. It’s a brand new phone.” Raph perked up at her words, remembering the lost phone he had left at home. Was it possible the phone was hers? It would make sense, he thought; the username did have the name ‘Addy’ in it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Addy was getting anxious on her way home from school that afternoon. She couldn’t find her phone and her music was in the hands of a monster. When she left her father’s, she hoped to get away from all the memories, but without her music for the past couple of months to calm her down, the nightmares had started and it was taking a toll on her. The only other thing that seemed to help her was the word game she had started playing with Wurst_Nitemare, but now that was gone and there seemed to be no hope in getting it back. She had decided that if it wasn’t found by the end of the week, then she would have to get a new one. 

When her mom had packed her things, she grabbed only the necessities. Her daughter was going to start anew. Her mom didn’t even want to grab the couple of outfits she did pack, but she had no idea when her daughter was going to be in the mood to go shopping, let alone, out of the hospital. At that moment, she was just happy her daughter had woken up from her coma. In her rush, she had completely forgotten to grab Addy’s mp3 player. She had no idea how music affected her daily life. How it helped keep Addy from becoming a complete basketcase.

Addy was trying her hardest at school to hide her unease. Every time Raph was near her, all she could think about was how he’s about the same size as the man who beat her. She knew deep down that Raph wouldn’t hurt anybody outside of the octagon unless necessary. Yet, that thought didn’t console her much. She had seen what he  _ could  _ do and was awed by him. That did not mean she was brave enough to befriend him.

She knew how her father was,  In public he doted on her, but in the privacy of their own home, he became a monster. In her eyes, Raph could be the exact same way. Don’t get me wrong; Addy felt terrible for thinking that anybody could be similar to her father, but she wasn’t about to risk the possibility of being credulous. 

What made her apprehension worse was knowing she was going to be eating lunch with him again tomorrow. Plus, she had her last two class periods with him. It was like he was everywhere! It wasn’t helping that he was so darn good-looking either. Especially in gym class when he wore a tight tee. Talk about drool worthy. And don’t even get her started on the mornings. The entire group seemed to be glued together.

She was trying her hardest to be polite and not make it seem like she was avoiding him as if he had the plague. Even though she clearly was. Thankfully, Nancy was doing her best as a buffer, always standing or sitting between the two, trying her hardest to keep her new friend from freaking out too much. She was a brave soul for doing that because Raph was starting to notice what Addy was doing and let’s just say, he was not happy about it. He planned on getting her attention one way or another.

Now home, away from all her new friends, her true colors showed, and she was exhausted. It took all of her remaining energy just to make it to her bedroom where she could hopefully get some reprieve.

Trudging into her room, she dropped her backpack next to the doorway and set her keys on the dresser. Her eyes were closed before she even landed on her bed, face first.

“Ow,” Addy groaned into her comforter as she landed on something hard. She rolled onto her side so she could get the thing out from under her, eyes still closed. Her eyes snapped open the moment her hand grabbed onto her headphones. She didn’t dare hope her mp3 was there with it as she looked down in anticipation.

“Mom!” She screamed, jumping out of bed. Her mother, Julie, came running up the stairs to her daughter’s room, thinking Addy was hurt.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Julie asked as she crashed into Addy’s room.

“My music!” Addy exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement, her curls bouncing with her. “When-How!?” she tried asking.

“Adelaide Johnson, you scared me half to death. I thought something terrible happened to you! I thought you were hurt when you screamed for me. Don’t do that to me,” she reprimanded lightly.

“Sorry, mom. But when did you get this back? How?”

“Easy,” Julie shrugged. “I went to Jack’s and got it from him. It was quite easy, actually.”

“You what? Dad just let you waltz in there and take it? Without saying anything?” Addy couldn’t believe it.

“Well, I have my ways,” the woman winked. Addy didn’t care to know more. She was thrilled to have her music back and she wasn’t going to worry about the details.

“Thanks mom,” she practically cried into her mom’s shoulder, hugging her.

“You’re welcome sweetheart,” Julie quietly stated as she wrapped her arms around Addy protectively. “You were looking pretty stressed out these past couple of weeks. And you kind of look like a zombie. I thought some music might help. It always did when you were little.”

“You have no idea,” Addy sighed, releasing her mother. “This means so much. Music helps me a lot. It helped me survive him.” Her mother frowned at that, wishing she was the one her daughter went to when the beatings started.

“Well, now you have it back,” she gave her daughter a sad smile before turning to walk out of Addy’s room. A few steps down the hall back towards the stairs she could hear her daughter squeal in excitement due to having her mp3 and wireless headphones back. Julie was glad she could finally do something to make her daughter happy. She knew Addy was still healing and that it would take time, but it was nice to see a real smile on her face after so long. One thing she did keep a secret from her daughter was that her father, Jack, moved to the next town over. In order to get Addy’s mp3 back Julie rounded up a few officers and obtained a warrant, forcing the man to give up the last meaningful thing he had to remind him of his daughter. 

~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning Addy walked into school with new vigour. She felt refreshed, now that she had her music, and a new bounce in her step as she bobbed her head from side to side to the song she was listening to. Suddenly, there was a tap on her shoulder.

“You look better today,” Nancy noticed as Addy quickly removed her headphones from her ears and rested them around her neck on her shoulders. “That new?”

“No, I just found my mp3 last night from my boxes mom packed me when I moved,” Addy lied, not wanting to tell Nancy how she’d really been feeling.

“I’m glad, because you look like a weight has lifted off your shoulders,” she smiled brightly, happy her friend found a way to ease her stress.

“Hey dudettes,” Mikey stepped between the girls as he gave Nancy a side-hug, remembering at the last second not to hug Addy. He recalled all too well that Addy didn’t like being touched when he practically dragged her away from Nancy to show off his fancy shuriken skills.

“Hey Mikey,” they each greeted. Addy noticed Raph, along with the other guys close behind her silly friend and quickly put her headphones back over her ears. 

Raph saw Addy’s eyes widen when she noticed him, but all his hopes were crushed the moment she moved her headphones onto her head. Leo gave Raph a rough pat of encouragement when he noticed his brother huff in frustration. He understood how his brother felt. While Mikey could make Nancy laugh and easily hug her without feeling self-conscious, he was dealing with her constantly jabbing him about refusing to fight a girl. It made him want to spar her just to shut her up and move on with their- what he hoped to be- friendship. 

She was the girl he never thought existed. She was smart, independent, stubborn, and knew how to fight. From the way she kept talking, she wasn’t half-bad either. Deep down, he wanted to see what she was truly capable of. But he was sure he could never intentionally hit a girl. No matter how good of a fighter she was, or how annoyed he was by her.

The first four periods went by in a blur for everyone. They all seemed excited to eat lunch together. Even Addy seemed to be looking forward to it now that she had some newfound courage with her music. It helped that it was easy to avoid the world when she had music playing.

To Raph’s surprise, Addy sat down at her usual spot on the opposite end of- what he now considered- their table,  _ without _ Nancy. For him, this was a new sight to behold. One girl without the other. From what he could tell, the two were glued at the hip and Nancy always seemed to take charge before Addy could say or do anything. That caused him to slightly resent Nancy, since all he wanted was to get closer to Addy. Little did he know, Addy was the one who asked Nancy to be a buffer. 

Raph quickly glanced around the courtyard, searching for Nancy, before he slid himself down the table directly in front of Addy. He knew she was going to try to ignore him. She still had on her headphones, bobbing her head side to side, looking down at her tray of food as she pretended to decide on which item to dig into first; applesauce or sherbert. She chose the sherbert, but before she could open it, Raph had a hold of it and was ripping the foil lid off for her. She looked up, surprised he was so close, and glared at him.  _ How dare he touch her food.  _ Raph quietly chuckled, not expecting that reaction out of her and pointed to his ears, signalling for her to take the headphones off. She tentatively complied, recognizing she wasn’t going to get her sherbert back until she did as he asked.

Raph was becoming nervous. She now had her headphones resting on her slim shoulders, making the headphones look huge, and all he could do was stare at her, bouncing his knee. He had no idea how to bring up her phone that was in his pocket, if it was her phone. He hoped it was. Before he found the gumption to say anything-

“Sherbert,” the small curly-haired girl demanded with her hand reaching out. It took all the effort she could muster not to laugh at the confused face he made. Instead, she looked at him expectantly. What came next, surprised her.

“Addybug,” Raph’s low voice resonated through her, generating warm, tingly sensations inside of her.

“What did you just call me?” She whispered, wide-eyed. The only thing she used that name on was the word game. How did Raph know that name?

“Um,” Raph was panicking. Uncertain of what to do next, he ripped the phone out of his pocket after setting Addy’s sherbert back down on her tray, and held it out to her. “Addybug? Right?” 

Addy was stunned into silence as she grabbed her phone out of Raph’s rough, calloused hand. It made her want to know what it would feel like to hold those massive hands in her child-sized ones (compared to his hands, anyway).

“Thank you,” she smiled gratefully up at him, thinking her week kept getting better and better. Then it dawned on her. “Wait, are you Wurst-”

“Dudette! You finally found your phone!” Mikey interrupted. Earning a scowl from Raph. He was just getting somewhere with Addy and there Mikey was to ruin it, per usual.

“Well, actually-”

“Here, let me add my number in,” Mikey snatched the phone out of her hand, excited to be the first of his brothers to add his number. “Dang it. It’s locked. Open it,” he handed it back to her long enough for the phone to be unlocked and snatched it right back up.

“Hey Mikey,” Splinter showed up with Nancy, Donnie, and Leo following him. “What are you doing with that phone? Raph’s been going crazy over it. I can’t believe he’s letting you touch it right now.”

“It’s not Raph’s,” Mikey stated, confused. “It’s Addy’s. She found her phone and I’m adding my number to it before any of you dudes get the chance.”

“Actually,” Addy tried to explain. “Raph-”

“Oh, let me have it. I wanna add my number in too,” Splinter interrupted, trying to grab the phone from Mikey, but he quickly held it above his head, dangling it out of Splinters reach. Addy slumped back in her seat, giving up as she looked through her lashes up at Raph. The boys were not going to give her the light of day until they had their numbers in her phone and Raph found this extremely disrespectful. He considered Addy his already, and everybody knew to respect what was his.

“‘Ey! Wankahs!” Raph growled as he grabbed both of his brothers’ arms. “Why don’  youse give the li’l possum  her phone back before I drag youse both ou’ of ‘ere by your grundies !” Mikey and Splinter visibly gulped as everyone in the courtyard watched the scene unfold. All of his brothers knew that when his Australian accent came out strong, someone was going to pay. Nobody had ever seen Raph be so protective over someone that wasn’t his brothers, then again, they could handle themselves. It came as a shock to everyone, including his brothers, that he blew up over some new girl’s phone.

Raph roughly let go of both his brothers’ arms when they each nodded frantically in understanding and sat back down at the table with a huff. Mikey, careful not to get too close, gave Addy her phone back faster than the speed of light and Splinter sat down next to Leo, the only brother who could handle Raph when things got out of hand. Leo shook his head at him while the usual noise of the courtyard cranked back up.

When Addy’s phone was promptly returned back into the safety of her hands, she gave Raph a giddy smile, surprising them both. Nobody had ever stood up like that for something so small of hers and she found she quite enjoyed it. Before she could change her mind, she held her phone out to Raph.

“You gonna add your number?” 

He nodded, gulping down his nerves as his knee started bouncing again and reached out for the phone. Addy immediately thought of calling him Thumper, but stopped herself short since she had no idea how he would interpret the nickname. Once her phone was given back, she smiled down at it as she shot him a quick text and put the phone away, not thinking about getting everyone else’s number. She made a mental note to get them from Nancy after school.

**~~~~~~~~~~**

The next morning Ceci sent everyone a letter from the office releasing them from their classes for the day. They were more than happy to get out of class- even if it was to decorate.

They met in the pool gym where they found piles of decorations sitting around the room. They stood and looked around in silence, no clue where to start.

“Okay people,” Addy said, taking charge. Thanks to her mom she knew exactly what to do to get this gym ready. “Let’s get started since Ceci isn’t here yet. Who knows how long it’ll be ‘til she gets here anyway. Let’s start with the basics. Get stuff hanging, set up tables and chairs, and get the heavy stuff where we want it.”

“I’ll start with the lights!” Nancy said, breaking the awkward silence that came from hearing Addy take charge. “Leo, remember you’re on streamer duty!” Nancy called to him, sticking her tongue out at Leo as she turned on her heel, and sauntered towards the lights.

“Umm,” Mikey looked between Leo and Nancy “I’m gonna go help Nancy set up those lights.” He ran to catch up with her.

“I’ll start setting up the stage,” Raph stated.

“I’ll help,” Donnie followed after him.

“Well Leo,” Addy turned to Leo. “Looks like we are on streamer duty. Which side would you like to start with? And don’t forget to twist them a little, otherwise, it’ll be flat and boring.”

“I’ll start over by where the stage is going to be set up.” Leo claimed, grabbing a role of black streamer, some tape, scissors, and dragging a ladder across the polished floor. 

Brooke and Ceci frowned at the scuff marks that followed the path of Leo’s ladder to where it now stood erect, as they walked into the room. She wrote a note to herself, on her clipboard, to ask the janitor, Rob, to come polish the floors again. She sighed and headed over to Nancy and Mikey to help with the lights. She needed them to be perfect. 

“Okay, so what’s green and has yellow wheels?”

“I don’t know, what?” Nancy smiled in anticipation of the answer.

“Grass,” Mikey told her grinning.

“What about the yellow wheels?” Nancy was thoroughly confused.

”Oh, I lied about the wheels.” 

Nancy cracked up laughing so hard that the light she was aiming towards the X on the part of the stage Raph had just set up was turned completely around. Mikey just grinned, proud that he finally had someone who thought his jokes were funny.

“Get down before you fall and let me fix that light.” Ceci called up to Nancy. Nancy climbed down and Ceci climbed up. It only took a minute for Nancy to realize she was no longer needed here. 

She looked around to see where else she could be of some assistance and noticed Leo’s streamers were twisted too tightly. A smug smile in place as she ambled over to him. Hand on her hip, she called up to him, “Hey, Leo! You need to unwind those streamers a bit. I know Addy said to twist them, but she didn’t mean for you to strangle them. What did they ever do to you?”

“If you think you can do better,” He challenged her, knowing the reason that the streamers looked the way they did was because he was jealous Mikey could make her laugh.

“Move.”

“Gladly.” Leo responded, pretending to sound smug.

Nancy quickly scaled the vacant ladder and untaped the end of the streamer.

“Hey, Nanc!” Mikey yelled to her. “I thought of another joke for you!”

“Hit me with it!”

“Did you hear about the guy that got hit in the head with a can of soda?!”

“No!” Nancy shouted to him, pausing in the act of untwisting the severely twisted streamer.

“He was lucky it was a soft drink!”

Nancy threw her head back in laughter, causing her to rip the streamer down as she tried to catch onto anything within her reach. Her sneakers hit a rung, twisting her ankle. She cried out in pain. Her arms still flailing as she continued to fall. She prepared herself for impact. It never came. 

“ Xiǎoxīn wǒ de xiǎo míngxīng,” Leo whispered as he cradled Nancy in his arms. Her eyes opened in shock. She was not expecting such endearment from him.

It took only a moment for her to process what had happened. The mischievous glint returned to her eyes.

“ Shǎguā, wǒ shuō pǔtōnghuà,”  She laughed breathlessly. It was Leo’s turn to be in shock. She spoke chinese too! They stayed that way, Leo holding Nancy in his arms, for an awkward minute, everyone staring at them. 

“Put me down already.” Nancy hissed, embarrassed, feeling the eyes focused on her.

“Duìbùqǐ“ Leo stated with a serious face. He gently stood her up. Nancy hissed as she put weight on her right foot.

What’s wrong?” Leo demanded to know, holding her under her arms so that he could carry most of her weight as he looked her over.

“I think I twisted my ankle.” Nancy grimaced.

“Okay, can you balance on your other foot while I get you a chair?” The look Nancy gave him made it obvious she could. He waited until he was sure she wasn’t going to fall though, before he went and grabbed a folding chair off of the rack. He dashed back over and sat her down, before kneeling in front of her. “This is going to hurt. We have to get your shoe off.” Nancy rolled her eyes.

“Just get it over with. I know how to treat a twisted ankle.” 

Leo slowly untied the laces. He glanced up at her face for reassurance before he loosened the laces. She hissed but didn’t pull away. With deliberately slow movements he grabbed the heel of her shoe. This time he didn’t dare look her in the eyes. He hated to do anything that was going to hurt her. Leo took a deep breath. He tugged off the shoe, dropped it on the floor, and flinched as she whimpered. 

“Duìbùqǐ, duìbùqǐ, duìbùqǐ.” He begged for forgiveness. He saw a movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up at her, only to catch her wiping away a tear. He quickly looked back down at her ankle.

“I’ll get you some ice.” Leo decided after a cursory glance. He quickly got to his feet and turned to go to the cafeteria.

“Wait,” Nancy’s voice made him freeze in his tracks. “We can’t put ice on it. That’ll make the swelling worse. I have Raynauds. Extreme heat and extreme cold will cause more swelling. Just go to the nurse and get a wrap.”

“Oh, Okay.” He walked away without looking back, still feeling guilty for adding to her pain by taking off her shoe.

Meanwhile, Addy was trying to decide where to put the chocolate fountain on the snack table. Left? Right? Center? By the cookies, brownies, or gluten free crackers? Eventually she settled for next to the cookies because brownies are already chocolate, no one eats chocolate crackers, but someone may want a chocolate dipped cookie. The only problem was that it was too heavy and too large for her to move.

“Hey, Leo!” She called before realizing he wasn’t in the gym anymore. She looked around. Mikey was still perfecting the lights to Ceci’s satisfaction, and Donnie was under the stage trying to hook up the microphones. “Can someone pause for a second and help me with this?” She yelled trying to get either of them to respond.

“I’ve got a second.” 

She froze momentarily at the sound of his voice. Deep breath, in and out. She turned to Raph, a smile plastered on her face.

“Thanks, I need this fountain moved over here next to where the cookies are going to go.” She gestured to the right side of the table.

“The table would be more balanced if it’s in the middle. Less likely to flip when someone leans on the side.”

“But I don’t want it in the middle of all of the crackers.”

“So move the bikkies .”

“Oh right.” Addy smiled, not a hundred percent sure she knew what a bikkie was, but assumed it either meant cookie or cracker and slightly embarrassed she hadn’t thought of putting the fountain in the middle herself. “So, it’s going in the middle then.”

Raph smiled back. Any time she smiled he couldn’t help but smile back. For him, her smile was infectious. 

Before they realized it, everything was done. The exception being Ceci walking around adjusting minor details. If she wasn’t stopped she would continue perfecting things until the dance started. Brooke looked up from her book and noticed everyone standing around. She rolled her eyes and strode over to Ceci, grabbed her arm to drag her away from the table cloth she had been straightening with a level. 

“Wait! I’m almost done!” Ceci reached out as if she could use the Force and it would bring the table closer to her.

“Everyone’s bored, and it looks fine. Let’s go.”

“I vote for pizza!” Mikey shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

“I’d love to, but I don’t have any money on me.” Nancy said, slightly embarrassed.

“I’ll cover it.” Leo stated quietly, without looking her way.

“I really need to get a job.” Nancy mumbled, running a hand over her ponytail.

“How do you feel about catering?” Addy asked.

“Never thought about it. Why?”

“My mom is the owner of an Event Coordinating company called Fun Times. She’s been looking for a few more employees. Specifically for catering.” 

“Sounds good!” Nancy beamed, grateful she won’t have to worry about her father sending her a monthly allowance. An allowance he seemed to be forgetting about lately.

“That’s settles it then.” Ceci said, giving up on perfecting the decor. “Wait. Did you say your mom is the owner of Fun Times?”

“Yeah,” Addy nodded as they all headed to the exit. Each of them broke off into pairs as they started their own little conversations. Mikey quickly noticed Nancy was limping pretty badly and couldn’t keep up so he went back to help her keep some of the weight off of her foot. This caused everyone else to realize they needed to slow down as well. Leo frowned. He should have thought of it first.  _ But would she have let him help? _ Ceci swung the door wide open and ambled toward her car; keys in hand. Brooke followed with Donnie, talking about Brooke’s current book, Note To Self by lilTrollgirl. Leo followed behind Nancy and Mikey, trying to think of ways to trade Mikey spots. Leaving Addy to walk with Raph.

“Hey Brooke! I was reading this book the other day about anti-gravity,” Mikey called out.

“Was it any good?” Brooke asked over her shoulder.

“Yeah, it was impossible to put down!” He busted up laughing and Nancy followed suit. 

“Okay wait, I have one for you.” Nancy beamed at Mikey. Leo frowned.

“The suspense is killing me.” Mikey grinned back pretending that his heart was going to explode.

“Nah, forget it.”

“Oh come on! You can’t leave me hanging like this or I really will die!”

“Well I was going to tell you a chemistry joke but I knew I wouldn’t get a reaction.” Nancy told him with a straight face, concentrating on walking. Mikey got a puzzled look on his face for a second before he burst out laughing.

“That was the best joke ever dudette!” He continued laughing as he helped her balance against the little VW bug so that he could open the door and slide into the back seat. Ceci helped her sit in the front before moving around to the driver’s side. 

Raph cleared his throat nervously. “Unless you want to squeeze in the back with Mikey I suggest you ride with the rest of us guys.” Addy glanced at the VW bug and ruled it out immediately. She sighed in resignation, her shoulders slumping forward just slightly.

“Looks like I’m riding with you guys.” She attempted a smile and turned to the jeep. Brooke was sliding into the passenger seat, Donnie already behind the wheel. 

Raph opened the back passenger door for Addy and noticed Leo sitting with arms crossed, head down, in the vehicle on the far side. He turned to Addy.

“Middle or window seat?” Raph asked, glancing down at the obviously nervous, gorgeous, curly-haired, girl. 

“Middle,” she stated confidently, looking up into his caramel eyes before jumping in.

~~~~~~~~~~

The girls all decided when they were eating pizza that they would all carpool to the dance. They entered the now crowded, bass thumping gym they had decorated earlier that day, somewhat surprised they made it before the guys did. They all headed towards the chocolate fountain, unable to contain their excitement at dipping marshmallows, strawberries, and cookies. Unsurprisingly, the fountain was crowded with girls in short, gaudy dresses. The girls quickly glanced down at their own dresses, realizing they may not have left enough skin showing. They frowned at each other, knowing full-well most girls in this school will be hanging all over the boys they had just gotten done eating pizza with.

“You know,” Nancy practically shouted over the music. “I don’t think I’ve seen so much pizza being eaten in one sitting my entire life.” Brooke and Ceci each looked over at each other as the giggles started spouting out. 

“You get used to it,” Ceci giggled with a wave of her hand.

“But is Mikey gonna be okay?” Addy asked in concern. “I mean, he ate like, two extra large pizzas on his own.”

“Yeah, he’ll be fine,” Brooke answered, knowing Mikey could eat another one if they hadn’t dragged him out of the pizza joint earlier.

“Who’ll be fine, Bee?” Mikey said, close to Brooke’s ear, making her jump in surprise.

“Nobody’s going to be fine if you keep scaring everyone like that.” Nancy laughed as she noticed the rest of the guys heading their way.

“Fountain looks good,” Raph complimented, standing a bit too close for comfort next to Addy. She could feel the rumble of his voice in his chest. When she looked back at the fountain, she noticed the ‘gangas’ from the other day scowling at her in their short, tight, cocktail dresses. Once again reminding Addy how conservative her dress was compared to theirs. She and the girls were secretly hoping the boys might notice them, but all confidence was lost when they saw most of their female classmates wearing the skimpiest thing they could find on the rack.

When Donnie saw Ceci’s calculating look, he misinterpreted it as her thinking about what to fix next. Not wanting her to have to worry about ‘work’ and wanting her to have fun at the homecoming dance, he grabbed her hand, silently asking her to dance.

“Um,” Ceci was caught off guard by his sudden action. He didn’t give her any more time to think about if she wanted to dance or not as he dragged her onto the dance floor, her blue flowery lace skirt flying behind her.

“I’m gonna go grab a drink, dudes,” Mikey stated, walking away before anyone had the chance to say they wanted some punch as well. He took a few steps towards the punch bowl, just enough to hide him in the crowd. He turned and went around to the other side of the table with the chocolate fountain.

“Hey girls come here for a minute.” He flashed a smile at the gangas and they instantly followed him through the crowds to a quiet corner. Before the girls could settle themselves he began, “I don’t want to see any of you within 50 feet of Brooke tonight. If I do, just know that you won’t have such nice smiles to flash at Raph in the future. Don’t even try to come up with an excuse.” He interrupted before ganga 1 even started to speak. “Stay. Away.” Without looking back, he pushed his way through the crowd to where he had left his brothers and Brooke, remembering at the last second to grab some punch.

“Wanna dance, possum?” Raph anxiously asked Addy, who instantly stared down at her silver heels, shaking her head no. “Can I at least get you some lolly watah ror somethin’?” Addy lifted her head up, looking straight into Raph’s chest, and nodded imperceptibly, even though she had no idea what lolly water was, exactly. She shook her head after he walked away, attempting to get the image of his broad, well-defined chest out of her head. His tight-fit button up left nothing to her imagination.

“Leo,” she tugged on his shirt sleeve. “What’s lolly water?”

“Soda,” he smiled down at her, completely understanding her scrunched up face. “Or, in this case, it might just be punch.”

“Oh,” she nodded, comprehending. “And why did he call me an opossum?”

“He what?” 

“He called me an opossum.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“He did!” Addy exclaimed, putting a hand on her hip, daring Leo to disagree with her again. 

“I’ll ask him about it, because that does not sound like something he would call a pretty lady.” 

Nancy, who was standing close to Addy, was saddened by Leo’s comment. She was hoping to catch his attention, but it looked like he was more into Addy. Not that she was mad at her. She was pretty in her yellow sundress with sheer sleeves that were decked out in glittering jewels.

“Feel like a dance?” Leo asked, holding a hand out to Addy. 

“Sure,” she nodded, glancing over at Nancy who gave her a small smile, signalling she was fine with them dancing. It wasn’t as if she would be able to dance with her twisted ankle anyway. Raph was furious at his brother for stealing his girl away as he trudged back with Addy’s and his drinks. Even worse, she looked more than happy about it, smiling from ear to ear.

Mikey, who had returned just in time to witness Nancy’s crestfallen face as Leo escorted Addy to the dance floor, came to her rescue.

“Care to dance, dudette?”

“I can’t move much,” she replied sadly.

“No worries, I’m a terrible dancer anyway. But I promise not to step on your foot,” he winked as he helped her onto the dance floor, making her laugh.

“So dudette,” Mikey started awkwardly, “What brought you to Sunnytown?”

“Really?” Nancy threw her head back in laughter. “That’s really the question we’re going with?”

“Yep.” Mikey grinned, gaining confidence.

“Well my life is a secret. As in top secret. I can’t tell you.”

Mikey laughed until he realized she was being serious. “But you have to have one confidant right? Someone you tell all of your secrets to so that you won’t be as stressed out when something happens because you’ll have someone to talk to.” Mikey reasoned.

“My psychiatrist did say I needed to start being more trusting.” 

“See! Even your thought doctor agrees with me, so spill.” Mikey beamed at her as they swayed to the slow song that had just started playing.

“Fine. Umm, where do I start?” She looked up at him, slightly nervous.

“The beginning usually works pretty well.” Mikey joked.

“Haha, right. Okay so you have to swear you won’t tell anyone, ever, for any reason. Even if someone threatens to kill you.”

“Wow. What did you do? Run a gang?”

“No!” Nancy punched him in the arm, giggling. “I’m the daughter of the Taiwanese ambassador, Daniel Wang.” She paused, waiting for that to sink in.

“Who?”

“All you really need to know is that he’s really important in the political world. Anyway, because of that I’ve grown up avoiding being the center of anything because I can’t have my picture taken or dad’s enemies will find me and use me as leverage to get dad to do things that they want.”

“That’s kinda crazy dudette.” Nancy nodded in agreement.

“Someone tried to kidnap me last month which is why dad made us move way out here. The problem is that he’s never home. He has to fly to D.C. constantly for work. I’m left at home with the butler, Gary. He’s pretty nice for an older guy but he’s not dad. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I love Mama Angie and Papa Arnie, but I really miss my own family, especially my big bro, Alex. He told the best jokes.” Mikey sighed. “I feel really bad for Leo though. He thinks my bro’s death is his fault. I overheard one of the nurses talking about how traumatized he would be because he was next to him when Alex died. I found out that Leo asked for them to turn Alex his direction and that’s when he flatlined.”

“I’m so sorry, Mikey. I had no idea. I mean it was obvious that you guys aren’t related by blood but I figured you were all adopted over time.”

“We were adopted. Papa Arnie and Mama Angie felt guilty because they owned the plane that went down that caused the whole thing. Aside from the four of us, they’re the only two that survived. Mama Angie was acting as head stewardess because someone called in sick and Papa Arnie was the pilot that day. He loves to fly.” Mikey smiled to himself. 

“So it was a plane crash? Wait- does it have anything to do with that memorial outside of town?”

“Yep. That’s the plane. They cleared a road to get to it when they were pulling us all out. It was too big of a mess to get cleaned up right away and Mama Angie thought that maybe we should turn it into a museum of sorts. Every year we go out to their graves on the anniversary of the accident. None of us blame Papa Arnie for the accident and none of us had any living relatives that wanted us so they offered to adopt us. That had to be a huge decision for them. I mean adding four boys to their family all at once,” He trailed off shaking his head in awe of his adoptive parent’s generosity.

“That’s crazy. You’re so lucky to have them.”

“Mind if I cut in?” Leo interrupted. “We can switch partners.”

“Sure!” Mikey grinned, offering Nancy to Leo. “Be careful of her ankle!” Another rock song began to play as Mikey attempted to dance with Addy. He really was awful.

Raph, dancing with Brooke, noticed Mikey and decided to save the day. He danced over and pushed Brooke into his arms moving both of them away from Addy so he had room to move. Addy was relieved to be free of Mikey’s awkward dancing, but apprehensive about being partnered with Raph. A slow song came on. 

“So what were you and Mikey talking about?” Leo asked in a curious manner.

“It’s a secret, bound by oath.” Nancy replied with a glint in her eye.

“No really. What were you talking about? It seemed pretty serious.”

“I really can’t tell you Leo.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not allowed to tell anyone.”

“It’s just Mikey. He won’t be mad.”

“Oh, Mikey just told me about how you guys came to be brothers.” Leo was confused. That wasn’t really a secret.

“That’s not a secret though.” He probed.

“I know. That’s why I told you.” Nancy smiled, hoping he would change the subject.

“Why won’t you tell me the secret?” Leo asked again, an edge to his voice.

“I really can’t tell you.” Nancy replied again, stricken. 

“But you could tell Mikey?!” 

“Don’t yell at me. You have no right!”

“Why won’t you tell me the damn secret!” he seethed.

“I’m leaving.” Nancy stormed off the dance floor.

“Fine. Bye.” Leo snapped after her. He could hear the exit door slam even from his spot in the middle of the gym. He took a deep breath. He really didn’t have a right to pry like that. Not yet, anyway. He went after her and it seemed like everyone in the gym was determined to let her get away and block him from apologizing.

Addy was concerned after hearing Nancy yell at Leo. She wasn’t sure what happened, but was happy to see Leo head in her direction after she walked off the dance floor. She was rooting for him, thinking of how much Nancy talked about him.

“I like your lippie.” Raph spouted before he could think of what he was saying. He only wanted to get her attention. Addy, who was still looking off to where Leo had disappeared, snapped her head up to look at him. A confused expression on her face.

“Lippie?” she asked, causing the awkward moment to become even more so.

“Lipstick,” Raph chuckled, forgetting that his brothers were really the only ones who understood some of his aussie slang, as he blushed in embarrassment.

“Since you’re explaining things,” Addy smirked mischievously. “Why do you keep calling me an ugly rat-like rodent.”

“What?” Raph was so shocked he even enunciated the ‘T’ in ‘what’. He couldn’t recall ever calling her anything ugly. He didn’t think it was possible for anyone to call her ugly.

“You called me an opossum the other day at lunch and again when you asked me to dance.”

“Oh!” he chuckled. “Wrong kind of possum,” remembering the accidental pet name he gave her caused him to blush yet again.

“I only know of one type of opossum, and they’re ugly, disgusting-.”

“The Common Brushtail Possum,” he quickly interjected before Addy lost her cool completely.

“The what?”

“Here,” he let go of her long enough to get his phone out of his pocket. “Let me show you.”

“Okay,” she waited patiently as he looked up a picture of a possum on his phone.

“That’s the Brushtail Opossum?” 

“Just possum. No ‘O’, li’l possum.” At this point she had recognized that possum was a term of endearment, which caused her to blush.

“Oh,” was all she could say as she took the phone out of his hand to study the creature that looked so absolutely adorable.

Outside, Nancy was nursing her ankle. Storming out of the gym had been hard on it. 

A girl that looked vaguely familiar came up to her.

“You’re Nancy right?” She asked.

“Yeah. Why?” Nancy replied in a clipped voice, still mad at Leo.

“I thought so.” The girl smiled and aimed a punch towards Nancy’s stomach.

**Author's Note:**

> Now, for the ACTUAL STORY! YAY!
> 
> READ ON :D


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